


An Agent in the Shadows - Season 1

by Your1Savior2Is3Here4



Series: An Agent in the Shadows [2]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-29
Updated: 2020-12-04
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:00:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 22
Words: 24,140
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27267613
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Your1Savior2Is3Here4/pseuds/Your1Savior2Is3Here4
Summary: What if Skye/Daisy was Coulson and May's adoptive daughter. What if she was a senior-level S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who was with the Avengers when Coulson died?DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D. OR THE AVENGERS, MARVEL DOES!!!If you like this story, check out my other stories.This includes Season 1 of Agents of SHIELD
Relationships: Leo Fitz & Jemma Simmons, Melinda May/Grant Ward, Phil Coulson & Melinda May & Skye | Daisy Johnson, Phil Coulson/Melinda May, Skye | Daisy Johnson/Grant Ward
Series: An Agent in the Shadows [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1990936
Comments: 4
Kudos: 49





	1. Season 1 Episode 1 - Pilot

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A SHIELD team tracks down a man with extraordinary powers.

"The secret is out. For decades, your organization has stayed in the shadows, hiding the truth. But now we know. They're among us. Heroes. And monsters. The world is full of wonders. We can't explain everything we see, but our eyes are open, so what now? There are no shadows for you to hide in. something impossible just happened. What are you going to do about it?" Skye said.

"That was great," said Commander Hill, "We have another mission for you,"

"So, I no longer have to keep this cover," said Skye with a hopeful look on her face.

"You will stay with your cover, you are joining Coulson's team undercover as a consultant."

"But AC knows who I am," said Skye, "He's my dad."

"But Ward doesn't," said Maria, "Coulson, May, and FitzSimmons will know your true identity, but as far as Ward is concerned, you are a young hacker who is an orphan that is looking for her parents."

"Mum's in the team," said Skye shocked, "She hasn't been in the field since Bahrain?"

"She's only the pilot"

"Why can't Ward know my identity?"

"We have intelligence that he and John Garrett have been working against S.H.I.E.L.D. We have Agent Triplett keeping tabs on Garrett for us, we need you for Ward, he might open up to someone that isn't a part of S.H.I.E.L.D. more than he would to a Level 9 Specialist," she said winking, "An Agent will pick you up shortly, you must follow Agent Coulson's orders,"

"But - I'm a higher clearance level than him," groaned Skye, she was always in trouble for not following his orders.

"Keep safe Agent 10. Hill out," she says as she hangs up the phone.

"How will you come to us? From the air? From the ground? How will you silence us this time? How can you? The truth is in the wind. It's everywhere. You cannot stop the Rising Tide. You will not find us. You will never see our faces, but rest assured, we will rise against those who shield us from the truth. And nothing, nothing, can stop us in the..." Coulson opened the van door. "Hey. What up?" Ward placed a bag over her head.

In the interrogation room was Ward, Coulson, and Skye.

"You guys are making a big mistake," said Skye, keeping her cover.

"You don't look that big," said Ward.

"Sorry for the lack of finesse. Agent Ward here has had a little history with your group, the Rising Tide."

"I don't know what you..."

"OK, there are two ways we can do this," said Ward.

"Oh, Is one of them the easy way?"

"No."

"Oh."

"What's your name?" asked Coulson nicely.

"Skye."

"What's your real name?"

"That can wait. It's another name we need. A certain hero," Coulson said, keeping her cover.

"What makes you think I know that?"

"Well, you made a little mistake. The phone you filmed the Hooded Hero with had the same cryptographic signature as a few of the Rising Tide posts."

"Wow, yeah. Was that a mistake? Or am I now sitting in the centre of your secret headquarters? What is this? A plane? I got inside. And by now you've discovered you can't beat the encryption on my equipment, so you got nothing."

"We have a fairly strong coincidence. You were on the scene right before it went up in flames. Wanna tell me what my team is gonna find there? How did you know the hooded man was in the building?"

"Did you blow it up to draw him in?" Ward suggested.

"Did you?" asked Skye to Ward.

"That's not our style."

"I was just kidnapped by your style. S.H.I.E.L.D. covered up New Mexico, Project Pegasus. Of course, you'd be covering up Centipede."

"Centipede?" mouthed Ward to Coulson.

"Holy no way. You don't know what that is. Billions of dollars of equipment at your disposal and I beat you with a laptop that I won in a bet?" said Skye, she wasn't lying about the bet, she had bet FitzSimmons that she could work out how Nick Fury lost his eye.

"You need to think about your friend. We're not the only ones interested in people with powers. We'd like to contain him, yeah. The next guy will wanna exploit him, and the guy after that will wanna dissect him."

"What is Centipede?" butted in Ward.

"Centipede. It was chatter on the web, and then, gone. I traced the access point MAC address to that building."

"What were you after?" asked Ward.

"The truth. What are you after?"

"World peace. You pseudo-anarchist hacker types love to stir things up, but you're never around for the fallout. People keep secrets for a reason, Skye."

"Well, just because you're reasonable and firm doesn't mean that you're not an evil faceless government tool bag," said Skye, knowing who he was.

"Just give us your guy's name."

"He's not my guy!"

"You understand he's in danger."

"Then let me go! Let me talk to him. Me, not the T-1000 here."

You wanna be alone with him. Of course," Ward said, "She's a groupie. All this hacking into S.H.I.E.L.D., tracking powers, she might as well be one of those sweaty cosplay girls crowding around Stark Tower."

"What? I would... It was one time."

"Ward," said Coulson walking out of the interrogation room, "Is it the girl? Is she getting under your skin? Or is it the assignment? Are you so anxious to get out of this that you'd deliberately blow an interrogation?"

"Give me a minute alone with her, you'll have your answers."

"She's an asset."

"She is such an... wait, asset?"

"We don't know anything about her. Do you appreciate how often that happens? That never happens. We need what she knows. She is also 15, she loves social media, so if she doesn't know, she can find out. I'll talk to her."

Coulson walked into the interrogation room alone and turned the camera off.

"Hey Skye," he said smiling.

"Hey Dad, I missed you," she said hugging him.

"Was the bag really necessary, Dad, you messed up my hair," Skye says. He can't help but laugh, as he returns the hug.

"Sorry, I didn't know it was you we were picking up. Maria just told me that it was someone both Melinda and I knew and that we had to keep your cover."

Coulson went over to the camera and turned it on again.

"Ward you can come in now," he said, "This is QNB-T-16. It is the top-shelf martini of sodium pentothal derivatives. It's a brand new and extremely potent truth drug. It was created by an agent that nobody has seen, excluding Commander Hill and Director Fury, she goes by the name Shadow because when she is on a mission, she is so quick and unnoticed, they believe she is a shadow. And don't worry the effects only last about an hour," Coulson said, he knew that Skye knew who he was talking about, she was Shadow.

"And you'll have a nice little nap, and we'll have all the answers to our... Hey! What the hell!" Phil had shot Ward with the truth serum.

"I'm sorry, did that hurt?"

"No. But you've lost your mind. You should never do that to a member of your team. And yes, it did hurt a little bit. But I always try and mark my pain in front of beautiful women because I think it makes me seem more masculine. My God, this stuff works fast."

"Don't trust us? Ask him whatever you'd like."

"Wait a minute. Wait, you can't just... This is not protocol!"

"You seem nervous, Agent Ward."

"I'm calling to mind my training. There's no way I'm gonna reveal classified secrets toa girl who's hell-bent on taking us down."

"Have you ever killed anyone?"

"Yes, a few. High-risk targets. But they were terrible people who were trying to murder nice people. And I didn't feel good afterward."

"And does your grandmother know about these things?"

"Gramzy?" he said as Skye laughed to herself.

Skye walked into another room on the plane.

"Did Agent Ward give you anything?"

"He told me he's been to Paris, but he's never really seen it and he wishes you had stayed in Tahiti."

"It's a magical place."

"Ward doesn't like your style. But I do."

"What about him?"

"... remains in critical condition. Employees could not identify the attacker, but security footage confirms that this man assaulted the factory foreman before damaging thousands of dollars' worth of company property ..." said the news reporter.

"This is wrong. This is not the guy I met. He was... He just needs a break."

"Then give him one. What have you got?"

"Michael Peterson. Factory Worker, married, one kid. Get injured, gets laid off, wife jumps ship. Good guy, bad breaks. Best guess is, someone tells him they can make him strong again. Make him super."

"Who has the tech to do that? And why would they want to?" asked May.

"Fitz, what do we have from the security footage? Before the blast," Coulson says as Ftz gets up the footage.

"What are we seeing?" asked May.

"Well, the man is angry at the other man," said Fitz in his Scottish accent.

"The data is very corrupt," finished Simmons in her English accent.

"Yeah, like Cold War Russia corrupt," said Fitz getting his confidence back, "I-I can't sync the time code without -"

"What if you had the audio?" suggested Skye, "I was running surveillance on the lab. I had my shotgun mic pointed at the window before the blast. The digital file's in my van. There's too much background noise for me, but you could probably..."

"You can clean that up, can't you?" said Simmons to Fitz, "Find a sync point and use cross-filed validation to find -"

"But I can't find scrub for expression patterns when the VITC is all..."

"Well, is there a chrominance subcarrier?"

"Yeah, attached to the back porch. Brilliant. That audio would be great."

"Your van's here. But you were right. We couldn't decrypt the files," said Coulson, secretly they hadn't tried, he knew that Skye would have made it impossible.

"The encryption is coupled to the GPS. Get my van back to that alley, and then I'm in business."

"Agent May will escort you. And on your way out, wake up Ward."

May and Skye were in the van, it was nice for them to do some catching up.

"So Mum, what have you done in the past six months?"

"The same old, desk duty, survive your father's dorkiness," May said as they laughed, "What have you done?"

"Live in this van, unable to drive, as you sure I can't get an early license, I'm almost 16," she said as she got a call from Fitz.

"Audio file should be coming through. It's not compressed so it might take a minute."

2Uh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, I'm getting it. S, uh, uh, when, when you get back, I'll show you my thing. A thing. It's not... It's-it's my hardware. My equipment! Let's hang up."

"So the alien metal wasn't the explosive?" asked Coulson to Simmons.

"Well, I assumed from the break pattern and dispersion that it was. But it's just dripping with gamma radiation and... Ugh. Now it's dripping. Fun!"

"So what did that get us?" asked Ward annoyed.

"Skye's sending us the rest of her decrypted files on Centipede, but we have her audio. I've loaded it up," said Fitz.

"Nice work," said Coulson.

"Using motion estimation, Bayesian inference, a beam splitter, and a little diffraction theory, our mystery man appears," Fitz says as a hologram appears of the surveillance footage, "It's like magic, but it's, it's science."

"Explosives in the case?" asked Ward.

"Please, calm down. Just let me check your vitals," said the doctor from the footage.

"I feel fine. I want to feel more," said the patient, "Where's the doctor? Where is she?"

"If you don't settle down, I'll-I'll have you sedated."

"Where is she?" screamed the patient.

"Wait, did you see that on his arm?" asked Fitz backing up the footage.

"What does that look like to you?" asked Coulson.

"A centipede," said Ward.

"It's an intravenous filter for his blood. This goo, sir? Very similar to the serum Dr Erskine developed in the '40s for the..."

"Super-soldier," finished Coulson.

"I'm reading alien metal, gamma radiation, the serum. Every known source of superpower, thrown in a blender."

"We need to see the origin of the blast. Run it back from the last point recorded."

Back in the van, Skye had just finished taking everything she needed.

"That should do it, this is my contacts for the Rising Tide, should I need them," she gave them to her mum, "I don't need them anymore."

"Yes you do, you cover isn't over. They still might want you for information on S.H.I.E.L.D.," she said giving the SD card back to her daughter.

"I hate this cover, I have to bad mouth the organization that I have grown up in."

"I know, it will be over soon. Let's head back."

"All right. Let me just..." May was attacked from behind and left unconscious.

"Mike! What are you doing?" she wanted to go to her mother, but she had to stick to her cover.

"Saving you. From the scary men in the dark suits. And you're gonna help save us."

"Us?" asked Skye as Mike brought in Ace.

"Don't cry, OK? Stay strong for me, Ace. What are we?"

"We're a team," said Ace.

"That's right. Now drive!"

Back on the bus, the rest of the team was looking at what caused the explosion.

"EXTREMIS It's new. Completely unstable," said Coulson.

"Poor man didn't bring an explosive. And Mike has the same stuff in his system," said Simmons.

"Well, judging by his strength level, a lot more," said Ward.

"So any minute now, Mike is gonna -" asked Fitz

"He'll take out anyone within a two-block radius."

"Well, you wanted a bomb," said Coulson to Ward.

"Sir? He didn't explode because he was angry. The two are connected. Well, it's kind of a chemical surge, but calming him down will buy him a minute at most.he will detonate within the next few hours," said Simmons.

"Solution?" asked Coulson.

"Isolate him? Get him away from people?"

"Or? Put a bullet through his brain," said Fitz defeated.

"If he's dead, this eradicated metabolic process will stop."

"You need to come up with a third option. One that doesn't involve Mike's son losing a father."

"May?"

"He took Skye!" said May trying not to worry him, but failing. Even if he couldn't show it, he was scared to the bone.

"You alright?" he asked his wife.

"We'll deal with that later. At length. Right now we need to figure out where they went.

"Oh, no! What is this nonsense? Why are you making nonsense?" asked Simmons, their server had just been hacked.

"This isn't me!" said Fitz defensively, "It's noise. Someone's hacking our secure channel."

"It's longitude and latitude," said Coulson entering the lab, "Mike took Skye. She's telling us where."

"We'll take the nice lady with us. We-we, we can't go to the airport, so we'll take a train. And there, she'll, she'll help us start over. Make a new life. A better life. Like I always said," Mike said to Ace.

Look at this place. You're gonna risk thousands of lives over some nobody?" questioned Ward.

"Nobody's nobody, Ward. FitzSimmons will come through. Mr Peterson, good morning. We're not a threat, we're here to help. But you're in danger and we need to take you in."

"What did you do?" screamed Mike. He blew the door off the van and ran off with Skye. While in the station, Skye causes a distraction to get away from Mike and runs upstairs, but Mike follows. There was a guy with a gun following them. May arrived upstairs to see Mike falling over the railings and back down to the first floor. The third-party turns the gun on Skye before she can do anything, May has the man disarmed and unconscious, she walks over to Skye.

"I could have done that you know. I thought you were just the pilot."

"I am, I'm going to be having some words with your father about this." Skye smiles.

"I told Ace, his dad is coming home," Skye told her dad as they walked over to Lola.

"He will be," said Phil.

"That was one way to get back into the field, almost being blown up."

"Not exactly how I pictured our first mission going," he said, getting into Lola.

"It's a brave new world and a really old car."

"Lola can keep up. Are you staying or are you going to annoy Hill until she gives you new orders?" he asked.

"I'm not exactly a team player."

"We're not exactly a team but we are in a position to do some good. Besides, you were willing to join the Avengers, they were a team... eventually," he says and picks up a ringing phone, "Is that confirmed?"

"They want us to go in and confirm it," says Ward.

"What have we got?" Skye asked.

"An 0-8-4, you've got ten minutes to decide if you want to stay."

"There is no way we can get to the bus in ten minutes," she said as Lola began to fly, "Dad, how long has Lola been able to fly?"

"Always."

"When were you planning on telling me?"

"When you were 16"

"I'm 15 and a half."

"It was your mother's idea that we tell you now, you are more mature than others your age, I mean, you are a top-level secret agent who was asked to join the Avengers by Nick Fury himself."


	2. Season 1 Episode 2 - 0-8-4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team is hot on the trail for an item of unknown origin.

"Skye? That girl's not qualified to be a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent," said Ward annoyed.

"Agreed, that's why I've invited her on as a consultant. S.H.I.E.L.D. does it all the time, technically, Starks a consultant."

"And, technically, Skye's is a part of the Rising Tide, she hacked our RSA implementation."

"Twice," said Coulson, he hated talking about his daughter like this, "From a laptop. Imagine what she will do with our resources."

"I am, that's exactly what I am imagining under this frown. Did you bring me on for risk assessment? She's a risk. She doesn't think like us."

"Exactly."

Skye was greeted by Jemma and Fitz.

"Agent Coulson told us the news. What a wonderful surprise."

"Yeah, living in an aeroplane with my parents, Ward and you two, the only sane people," said Skye. She knew them from S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy. They were in the same Science and Technology class.

"I wouldn't say we're sane."

"You know about Ward, right?" Skye asked.

"Yeah, Commander Hill told us, get close to him and keep your cover."

"Yeah, according to Ward, I can't even throw a punch," she said annoyed. They learned about Shadow in the Operations department of S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy, but never her name, she was the youngest person ever to complete S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy in Operations and then complete Communications and then Science and Technology. She was only currently 15.

"We have two kids on this bus who aren't cleared for combat. You're adding a third" said May, keeping her cover, even if she hated it.

"At least FitzSimmons are trained S.H.I.E.L.D. scientists. But Skye?"

"You've got to hate this?" asked Simmons to Skye whilst they were looking at the live footage.

"I would, being the highest in clearance level and having to act as a hacker who until a few days ago, hated S.H.I.E.L.D.," said Fitz.

"It's bad for AC and May because they have to pretend that they don't know me and I'm a risk for this team, Ward is the risk, he is a mole but we don't know what organization he reports to so we have to act as though we don't know he's a mole," Skye moaned.

"You said this was a select team assembled to work new cases, to protect people. I don't see how letting some hacker tag along -"

"Looking for an objection I haven't already anticipated. I'm calling this but your frown will be on the record."

"We've been called in to investigate an 0-8-4"

"Officially it's an Airborne Mobile Command Station, but we call it 'the bus'. We find it best to use shorthand in the field. But everything has to be just so, you know? Because of the danger," said Fitz, keeping their cover.

"Yeah, I've been up here before, but I didn't see much, because of the bag Agent Ward put over my head."

"Yes, so sorry about that. Water?" asked Simmons.

"Wheels up in two. Lock it or lose it."

"Suit ride," Skye said to Coulson as he walked over.

"I earned a little goodwill from Director Fury when I got hit right before the Battle of New York."

"No, you didn't." Skye whispered, "You were stabbed in the heart by an Asgardian Scepter."

After obtaining the 0-8-4 they left for the Sandbox.

"Top speeds a priority, May. Obviously. I know you didn't want to see combat. I apologize for that. Do you need anything else before I go check on the device fueled by an evil that sits in the cargo hold?"

"Check on Skye, she is struggling to keep her cover, she is one of the best spies in S.H.I.E.L.D. and the best for her age, but she can't show it."

"I know, I hate not being able to defend her, or even admit you are my wife, it is like our family doesn't exist when Ward is around. But Skye has FitzSimmons to talk to, they are her age and they know her identity."

"Love you," May said, kissing her husband.

"Love you too," replied Coulson.

Coulson walked into the lab to find Fitz and Ward yelling at each other.

"Do we have a problem here?"

"No, sir," said Ward, "Just working on our communication. Not everyone was prepared for a firefight."

"We got out, didn't lose anyone, saved a few of theirs. I'd say we did alright.anything else?" Skye raised her hand.

"Oh yeah, I have a small question, because I have been feeling like the tag-along hayseed rookie, but now I get the feeling that Ward doesn't know which ones Fitz and which ones Simmons, and they've seen even less gunfire than me. And I'm no rocket scientist, but is this your first mission together?" said Skye keeping her cover from Ward.

"No, It's our second," said Jemma, also keeping the cover.

"I was your first. That's sweet."

"You're amused?" asked Ward.

"No, I'm terrified! I am way over my head, but I've been on this team just as long as any of you have. I might as well be team captain," she said, "I am the highest clearance level," she said in her head. Coulson and FitzSimmons all knew this to be true, but for the sake of their real mission, nobody could know.

"Hunger game?" asked Skye, curious as she walked over to Ward.

"Matterhorn. One of one hundred books my S.O. gave me that I'm just getting around to," Skye has a confused look on her face, "S.O. Supervising Officer."

"Get it," she said, even if she already knew that, "Hackers have a lingo, too, but I'll pick yours up. I feel like you and me, wrong foot. Can I buy you a drink?" she sat down, "What is said before, the prising being a good thing, what I meant was that it shows that with a common link, they can come to a solution. That is what the Rising Tide is all about."

"First walkie-talkie wristwatch.1936, Poland. They only made twenty, I think. Still, works said Phil, he hated flirting with his ex-girlfriend on the same plane as his wife.

"I forgot you were such a fundamentalist, Phillip. Romanticizing history, huh."

"Yeah, most of it's glued down. There was an elegance to thighs back then."

"This is my fault. Should've learned kung-fu," said Fitz.

"Oh, yeah, but I shouldn't have pushed you into the field in the first place. You weren't ready."

"It was my job to do a proper threat assessment."

That wouldn't have happened if Agent May wasn't on the stick," said Skye, "She would've busted out with her ninja knowhow."

"Agent May? No, no, no. She transferred from the administration, said Fitz to keep their cover.

"Well, I've seen her destroy a guy, so..." they all look at Ward.

"You've heard of the Calvary right?"

Yeah," said FitzSimmons in unison.

"Everyone at the Academy talks about -" said Fitz.

"She's the Calvary?" said FitzSimmons in unison, they already knew this.

"I called you never to call me that," muttered May.

"So, how'd we get out of here?" asked Simmons.

"We can't go through the doors. They're bolted, tied to the pressurization lines. You two geniuses have nothing?"

"Well, it's hard to concentrate in these intense situations."

"Not a scratch, but your plane's totalled, good thing S.H.I.E.L.D insurance covers hijacking," Skye says to her father who is inspecting Lola.

"Right under incidentals."

"Lots of damage to an object that is just going to be destroyed."

"You know the protocol."

"I know. And Dad, Mum and I both agree that we don't want to see you flirting with any other ex-girlfriends."

"Looks like Skye might end up as more than just a consultant. Despite her reservations. You know, she could turn into a solid asset. With some serious work."

"Well, if she wants to be a field agent, she'll need a supervising officer. Someone disciplined, someone good," she says, knowing that Skye was already the best agent on the team, but she needed to get close to Ward and that was the best way.

"All right."

They were all having drinks as they watched the 0-8-4 going up to the sun.

"Skye, do you want one?" asked Ward.

"I can't, I'm underage."

"How old are you?" he asked, confused.

"I am15 and a half," she said blushing.

Nick Fury walked onto Skye's bunk, Ward was with Coulson so the coast was clear.

"I told you to watch your parents, not help them blow up the plane."

"Sorry, but this time I was the one to blow it up," she tells him, "I wouldn't have to if I wasn't keeping this cover."

"Sorry, Agent Coulson-May, but your orders are to keep your cover.."

"I know my orders, Sor, but it's just hard to face combat and not be able to do anything about it and know you could've done something."

"How is the mission going?" he asked, changing the subject.

"I got a message from the Rising Tide about an hour ago asking about my status, I told them that I was in so my cover is fine there. Dad still thinks Tahiti is a magical place.mum is mad that she has faced combat in every mission so far, as well as being called the Calvary by Ward and FitzSimmons, and Dad's ex showing up didn't help either."

"And ward?"

"We didn't get off on the right foot but our success on the last mission seems to be helping. He has offered to be my S.O."

"Good, we need to find out what Garrett is up to."

"I'm sorry, Uncle Nick."

"We already have Trip with Garrett, hopefully, we will find out what he is planning before he does anything too serious,"

"I know it is six months away, but I am planning a sweet sixteen, and I was hoping you could join, the mission is hopefully over by then,"

"Of course I will come, I can't believe that Coulson and May's child is becoming 16 in six months," he said smiling.

"Can the Avenger come if Dad comes?"

"I don't see why not. They care about you and him. They might be a bit shocked though," he said as he started to walk off, "I almost forgot, thanks for the tip on the fishbowl." Skye smiled.


	3. Season 1 Episode 3 - The Asset

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team races to rescue a kidnapped scientist.

“There will come a moment when you will have to commit to this or bail. Every field agent has a defining moment. Ask Coulson. When you have to make a hard call. To either dedicate yourself to this or to curl up in a ball and run,” said Ward to Skye.

“How can you run and be curled up in a ball?”

“It is my job as an S.O. to make sure that you don’t die before then. Come on.”

“So what was yours, Agent Ward?”

“Ten minutes.”

“You’re defining moment. Come on, tell me, I wanna know. I could get Coulson to give you some of that truth serum. You could spill your little heart out to me again.”

“You mean my Level 1 overshare that miraculously got you to cooperate? I hate to tell you this, rookie, but we don’t have a truth serum,” he said walking off.

“Does he know that you created the truth serum?” asked Simmons.

“How can he? If he doesn’t know I am even an agent, how can he know I am Shivers?” said Skye, she was annoyed that she can’t answer him back, “Do you want to come to my sweet 16 in six months?” she asked.

“Yeah,” said Fitz

“Of course,” said Simmons.

“They’ll never allow a strike team in Malta. Plus, this weekend Quinn Worldwide’s got its annual shareholders’ gathering. We’d risk global outrage. But…” said Coulson.

“If we go in alone…” said May.

“S.H.I.E.L.D. can disavow us, claim ignorance.”

“Without a man inside, it’s impossible. Unless you are immune to pulse laser emissions.”

“If we had a monkey we could get in,” suggested Fitz.

“Oh Fitz,” moaned Jemma.

“If we had a small monkey, he could slip through the sensors and disable the fences power source with his tiny adorable hands.”

“I could go in,” suggested Skye.

“Drop me in the hills outside of Valletta. I’ll spend a few weeks establishing a cover, gathering intel…”

“Hall doesn’t have a few weeks.”

“And to restate, any agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. to set foot on Maltese soil can be shot to death, legally,” said Simmons.

“Not me, I could go in,” suggested Skye.

“Skye, this is serious.”

“Wait. What are you saying?”

“Well, I’m not an agent of S.H.E.I.L.D., so I can go in without breaking any of these stupid rules.”

“I know, I know,” said Skye walking into Coulson’s office, “I am technically an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. but as far as the world is concerned, I’m a member of the rising tide, my badge is in my office at the Triskelion so…”

“Just be safe, if you get in trouble, forget your cover,” said May.

“I will be, I know what I am doing.”

“You’re gonna die and leave us out to dry, you know that? You are going in with no self-defence skills…” said Ward annoyed, he was attempting to give her self defence lessons, not that she needed it.

“I have a few tricks up my sleeve,” she said trying not to blow her cover.

“You need muscle memory, fundamentals, the tools to turn yourself…”

“Into a whole bag of tools?”

“How did you learn computer science without committing yourself to it?”

“CS comes naturally to me,” she said, “along with being a secret agent and fighting,” she said in her head, “I’m sorry I’m not natural at whatever you are,” she lied.

“You think this came naturally? I had a brother who beat me up.me and my little brother. For nothing. For eating a piece of his birthday cake. I had to learn to protect us, the way I am trying to protect you. That was my moment. You asked.”

“I don’t want to question your orders, sir,” said May.

“Good.”

But, I’ve already seen more combat than I bargained for. This two-man extraction team? That’s exactly the kind of action I wanted to avoid.”

“That’s why you’re not on it.

“Specialist work is different from fieldwork, believe me. When was the last time you…”

“Hall’s one of ours and he’s in trouble. I need two men to get him out. Ward makes one. So that’s why I’m going in. you forget I saw plenty of action with the Avengers.”

“And you died,” she muttered after he walked off.

“How’s she doing?” asked Fitz.

“She’s good,” said Simmons.

“You know she is one of the best,” said May covering her comm.

“I could get used to this, people. It is like Siri if it worked. Skipper to Bravo, I got eyes on Top Dog. the eagle is landing on it”

“What are you doing?”

“What are you doing?”

“Sorry, I don’t know. I see Quinn. I’m gonna go talk to him,” she said walking over to Quinn, “Ian Quinn, I’m your last-minute party crasher. Skye.”

“This is Skye, a member of the Rising Tide. They’re a group of hackers who have gotten some pretty big secrets out to the public.”

“I’m surprised you read it.”

“We think very much alike, anti-government organizations, etc.

After a while, they are back on the bus. The mission went well but Skye almost dropped her cover.

“You and your brothers. Where’d you grow up?” asked Skye.

“Massachusetts. Mostly.”

“A house?”

“You didn’t?”

“One house. The Brodys. I was three. They sent me back to Saint Agnes after a month. Said I wasn’t a good fit,” she wasn’t lying until she went to AC and May, she didn’t have a permanent home. She was happy she was returned, if she wasn’t, she would never be who she is today.

“Foster parents. Your first?”

“My third. I’d heard it before but this one was different.”

“‘Cause you wanted them to like you.”

“Bad. I called her ‘mum’ once. Tried it out. Guess it wasn’t a good fit. Hoping for something and losing it hurts more than never hoping for anything.”

“We won’t turn our back.”

“It doesn’t matter. I made my choice. And I want this. Bad. And I know there’s a truth serum, the Shivers made it.

“She hates lying,” Melinda said to Phil.

“She technically isn’t lying,” said Phil.

“But she has to pretend that we, as her parents, don’t exist when he’s around.”


	4. Season 1 Episode 4 - Eye-Spy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An incredible female thief vexes Coulson and his team.

“What’s up, Phil?”

“I’d prefer you not to call me ‘Phil’.”

“Ok, you’re the boss. AC. Just missing my van a bit. Taking a little me time.”

“Ward’s gone upstairs.”

“OK, Dad, I’m planning my sweet 16.”

“You have six months.”

“Six months to graduate high school, complete missions, and keep my cover, it will take me six months.”

“I thought you graduated high school when you were 12?”

“My cover is a high school dropout.”

“Anyway, I want your help with something.”

“Hit me with it.”

“Have you ever robbed a bank?”

“No.”

“An armored car?”

“Nope.”

“How about a casino?”

“Should I be offended?”

“Somebody’s stealing millions of dollars in diamonds. They found a way to crack the security systems. I want you to figure out their exploit.”

“I can run facial recognition software on the photos,” said May, “Cross-reference them with our criminal databases.

“You don’t have to. That’s the thief. Her name’s Akela Amador.”

“You’re certain?”

“I should be. I trained her.”

“I remember her, I was six months into my first year at the Academy.”

“I’m surprised you do. You were only eight.”

“Akela Amador was a S.H.I.E.L.D agent. Seven years ago, she led a raid on one of Vanchat’s gulags. Everyone believed that she and the other two agents on the mission were killed. I had my doubts. So, I sent in a second team, just in case. They found a lot of carnage. But couldn’t confirm that any of it was Amador. Left the possibility open.”

“That’s why you chose this op. When you heard about the heists.”

“Only a few women in the world who could pull off something so impossible. Since you were on the bus, I thought it had to be her.” Skye and May knew that he was talking about both but they had to keep their cover.

“Swedish Customs confirmed that Amador left the country using an alias on a Swedish passport. She flew into Belarus, brought a train ticket to a town called Zloda. I’ve also put together a list of individuals who could fence that many diamonds. There’s been no contact or activity,” said Ward.

“Maybe she’s saving them for a rainy day,” suggested Coulson, “Buying something special. Let’s focus on finding Amador.”

“I’ll let HQ know she’s alive so they can assist with the manhunt.”

“I’d like to hold off on that. Until we know more. Contact Belarus authorities. Find a place to park the bus. Put together a list of inn, hotels, and pensiones near Zloda. There can’t be that many of them. We’ll find her.”

“Will she remember me?”

“Who knows, it might be my fault. I pushed her, too hard.”

“Don’t blame yourself, whatever weird stuff she got into, it’s on her.”

“There’s barely any electricity in this town. Can’t be too hard to find our mystery woman.”

“Unless she already knows we’re here.”

“No. You’re not suggesting some sort of precognition or telepathy because…”

“I know, it doesn’t exist. Found a server,” said Skye, “I remember her,”

“Really,” asked Simmons.

“She ‘died’ halfway through my first year at the academy and Coulson blamed himself for pushing her so hard. I was only eight.”

“Dad, I want to talk to her,” Skye said, she was alone with him in his office.

“OK, after I talk to her.”

“Hello Akela, you’re safe now. Give it a minute. I hit you with a powerful dendrotoxin.”

“There’s a kill switch in my eye. Why hasn’t my handler blown it yet?”

“As far as your handler knows, you fought Agent May, you both went down, then you got up and left the building to complete your mission.”

“How?”

“We hijacked your feed. One of my agents is wearing a set of glasses mimicking your implant. Right now, it’s transmitting his point of view as if it was yours. It even has backscatter imaging.”

“I get messages from my handler.”

“We’re receiving those as well. My agent’s on his way to the Todorov Building, completing your mission while we disable the fail-safe in our eyes. I promise they can’t see you, You’re OK, Akela. Look at me. How long have they been monitoring you?”

“Years. Why are you doing this, Coulson?”

“I need to know why a prox card is worth 30 million…”

“No. What are you doing? Why are you helping me? Where’s the ‘I told you so’?”

“That’s not me anymore. I’m just glad you’re alive.”

“Vanchat would’ve never caught us if I’d just done my job. I should’ve listened to you. Trusted my team the way you insisted. If I had, they might still be alive.”

“How’d you manage to escape?”

“I didn’t. Got caught in a crossfire. Went down. Woke up in some half-assed triage bay, blind in this eye. Spent the next four years alone in a cage in a copper mine.”

“We looked for you. Heard rumours you’d been taken to Shanxi province.”

“When a team finally came, I thought it was S.H.I.E.L.D. at first, but…”

“Who were they?”

“I don’t know, even to this day. But they were organized. They took me to the clinic. I had multiple surgeries, until one day, I could see out of both eyes again. I was so grateful. Until I realized what they’d done.”

“Somebody was watching.”

“My every move. I had no idea until they sent the first message. Then the assignments started. Mostly it was, ‘steal this’, ‘follow him’, ‘break into there’. I just tried to ignore them. But when I did, I’d get this pain, like an electric migraine.”

“The fail-safe.”

“Polite way of putting it. Now when I think about my years in the cage, I miss it. I wish I could go back. Be alone. Sleep in peace.”

“I know you’re tired but we need your help.”

“I can’t, the only messages I receive are from the Englishman.”

“The Englishman. Your handler? How do you know he’s English?”

“The way he refers to certain things. He uses ‘lift’ instead of ‘elevator’, ‘boot’ instead of ‘trunk’. He’s in the late 30s, early 40s.uses dated references.”

“What happened to Agent Coulson? He’s different.”

“Well, he’s loosened up a bit. He nearly died before the Battle of New York.”

“But what did they do to him?”

“I’m sorry?”

“Never mind.”

“Are you still planning your sweet 16?”

“There’s always room for AC. Slide on in.”

“What’s wrong with ‘Agent Coulson’ or just ‘Coulson’?”

“Nothing, I guess. IT's just way cooler. ‘Cause you are. Cool, Dad. Not many people would’ve made that call. Give Amador a second chance.”

“I got one. Seems only fair I extend the same opportunity to others. I see why you like it here.” “Yeah, it’s kinda like my van. Without all the bums trying to break in. I don’t miss that. It’s more peaceful here. I also don’t have to keep up my cover, I can just be me. It’s also cool knowing that someone has my back. No matter what.”

“Peaceful’s good.”


	5. Season 1 Episode 5 - The Girl in the Flower Dress

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team tracks down a man with dangerous powers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: sorry it has taken so long to update, I am back at school and we have a lot of exams.

Skye walks into her dad’s office, she knew she was in trouble.

“What’s going on with you? And don’t lie, I know Romanoff taught you, but I am your dad, I know when you’re lying,” Skye didn’t answer, “You were worried every time Miles would open his mouth. You didn’t want us to know something. This is your one chance to come out with it or… or… or I will get your mother up here.” Skye hands him a memory stick. “Is this everything you have on the Rising Tide?”

“No, on me. It is everything to do with me before I met you and mum. I didn’t want to tell you because I thought you would think I was replacing you,” she said looking to the ground. Her dad hugs her, she wasn’t expecting that.

“What have you got?”

“My name was Mary Sue Potts and I was at Saint Agnes Orphanage, I went to three foster homes, that’s it. Uncle Nick has put a level 10 clearance on all files on me, an age limit on how old you have to be to reach level 10 clearance,” she said rolling her eyes.

“He’s only trying to protect you,” he said, “Your mum and I don’t even know the whole story.”

“Really?”

“Really. This is to keep your cover on the bus,” he gave her a box with a bracelet that looked like the one he gave Miles, “It is a fake, but you need to wear it, it also has a tracker.”

“So Grandma can stalk me as she does with the locket.”

“I guess so.”

Skye woke up on the sofa with a blanket over her and her mum at the end of it.

“Hey,” said Skye sitting up.

“How are you feeling?”

“I’m fine”

“What happened today wasn’t your fault. Everything that happened today was because of Centipede and Miles.”

“I was supposed to stop Miles from getting into S.H.I.E.L.D.”

“It’s not your fault. They had other people start monitoring him when you got resigned here, but it does not matter, Miles shouldn’t have given away information” May tells her daughter, “Maria called, she wants to talk to you later.”

“Maria my SO or Aunt Maria?”

“Both, she is considering sending Hulk after Miles for hurting her niece,” May said as she and Skye laughed.

“Aunt Maria, Mum said you wanted to call,” said Skye.

“I just wanted a mission report,” said Hill.

“Cover is fine, Ward doesn’t suspect a thing,” she started, “Couldn’t my cover have had any less combat training?” she complained.

“We want to see if he will recruit you to be anti-SHIELD along with him by being your SO,” explained Maria, “I wouldn’t make you do it if it wasn’t necessary.”


	6. Season 1 Episode 6 - FZZT

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team hunts down a shocking killer leaving victims floating in the air.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: this is a filler chapter as there wasn't much I could change.

“I’m Agent Grant Ward, and I can shoot the legs of a flea from 500 yards,” said Fitz, imitating Ward. Skye laughed for the first time in a long while, “Hey, that’s a sound I haven’t heard in a bit.”

“Yeah, well, you wouldn’t be laughing a whole lot if you were living in Ward’s doghouse. I have been busting myself, ‘memorizing’ every S.H.I.E.L.D. protocol manual, even though I did that when I was eight, following every order. ‘Yes, sir!’, ‘No, Sir!’, even though I am a higher clearance level than him. I even let them tag me like a stray dog, even if it is fake, but it does have a tracker


	7. Season 1 Episode 7 - The Hub

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Secrets split Coulson's team and lives could be lost.

“Ah. Good, you’re done with that paranasal extraction nonsense. Do you need me to analyze the data?” asked Fitz.

“That won’t be necessary.”

“If it’s encrypted, I can mine the chip for him.”

“I’m afraid this mission’s classified. Clearance Level 8,” he said, he gave Skye a look that she understood as: she would find out later.

“Wait, what? He can just shut us out of the process like that?” exclaimed Skye even though she knew this already.

“Well, he did say the mission is Level 8.”

“And we’re not. So, we can’t know about it.”

“Right, but this is where we all stand around the holocom and we learn about stuff. I mean aren’t we all on the same team?”

“No need to get started on one of your socialist riffs.”

“S.H.I.E.L.D.'s whole infrastructure is based on the hierarchy and compartmentalization of intelligence.”

“Every agent can’t have the intel on every mission. Makes the entire organization vulnerable.”

“OK, fine, but if I just fought my way out of an underground Siberian prison, I’d kind of want to know what for.”

“Coulson’s got you used to the plane, the way we do missions here. The Hub is different.”

“The Hub? What’s the Hub?” asked Skye, she hated playing stupid.

**_Skye's POV:_ **

I wait until Ward is clear from sight before I yank my arm from the wall where my fake metal bracelet had attached me. I walk past faceless agents that I don’t recognize until I get to the floor with the offices for senior-level agents. I give a nod to Jane, the secretary at the front desk as I pull out my ID card, I walk past Nick and Maria’s offices before scanning myself in, I walk in and find my office exactly as I left it before going undercover. I drop to the couch with a sigh, feeling relaxed for the first time since going undercover. A knock on the door makes me grow as I get up from the sofa. Opening my office door, Maria comes in wrapping me in a hug.

“Miss you too, Aunt Maria,” I laugh, returning the hug.

“How are you parents?” she asked.

“They are OK,” I tell her, “You owe me money, by the way, it only took May three missions before she requested fieldwork.”

“The one time I want her to be stubborn,” Maria said, I laughed.

They hear a knock at the door, as Mum walks in, she hugs Aunt Maria.

“Agent May, what can I do for you?” I say in a monotone agent voice.

“Just came by to say hello, Agent Coulson-May,” she says, “Why are you both so quiet, normally when I come in here, you are both laughing or shouting at each other.”

“How did your meeting with Hand go?” asked Maria.

“She wasn’t too bad. Do you know what the mission is?” she asked, not wanting to say anything classified.

“We know the basics,” I tell her, turning on my computer, “Would I be breaking any rules if I invited FitzSimmons to my office for no particular reason?” I asked Maria.

“I don’t say you are breaking any rules.”

“OK,” Skye said, walking over Jane, “Can you call FitzSimmons down here please?”

When FitzSimmons arrived, they fought and they were in trouble, I thought it would be funny to make it seem that way.

“Hello, you may know me as Commander Hill, but for now you may call me Maria, this is not a working visit, this is also not my office,” Maria said as she started laughing.

“Hello, you may know me as Skye the hacker, but for now you may call me Skye, as in Agent 10, this is not a working visit, but unlike Aunt Maria, this is my office,” I said also laughing.

“And I’m Agent Melinda May, and I’m leaving,” she said leaving for the office.

“Agent 10, you scared us, Ma’am,” said Simmons.

“Please, don’t call me ma’am, I’m younger than you and it makes me feel old, like Uncle Nick,” Maria had to hold in her laughter at that, “However, I do have one thing,” said Skye, “Fitz, you’re going on the mission with Ward, correct?”

“Correct.”

“I want you to keep an eye on him,” said Maria.

“But right now, we have drinks,” said Skye.

“No alcohol though,” said Maria, “Coulson would kill me.”


	8. Season 1 Episode 8 - The Well

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An Asgardian relic threatens to destroy a member of Coulson's team.

“In ancient times, people believed the heavens were filled with gods and monsters and magical worlds. Then, as time passed, those beliefs faded into myth and folklore. But now we know the stories were true. Other worlds, with names like Asgard, do exist. And beings once revered as Gods, like Thor, have returned. Leaving us with more questions and an enormous mess to clean up,” said Simmons annoyed.

“You guys may think it’s old news, but it’s new news to everyone else. So, Asgardians are aliens from another planet that visited us thousands of years ago,” said Skye.

“Or more,” said Coulson.

“And because we couldn’t understand aliens, we thought they were Gods?”

“That’s where our Norse mythology comes from.”

“That’s too crazy. Do you think other deities are aliens, too? Vishnu for sure, right?”

“You know. It’d be nice if, for once, Thor and his people sent down the God of cleaning-up-after-yourself. He’d probably have a magic broom for this kind of thing,” said Phil annoyed.

“I just wish they’d left their alien ship behind.”

“So, we can clean that up, too?” questioned May.

“So, we could go inside. Take a peek under the hood, maybe take it for a spin. Come on, you’re telling me piloting an alien ship isn’t on your bucket list?”

“I can’t think of a single time when anything alien in humans hands ended well.”

“Wouldn’t mind getting my human hands-on Thor. He’s so dreamy.”

“Sure, he’s handsome, but-”

“No. He’s dreamy.”

“Jakob Nystrom, 30. Girlfriend, Petra Larsen. Leaders of a Norse paganist hate group,” said Ward.

“And the numbers are growing thanks to what happened in Greenwich, and thanks to the internet,” said Skye.

“Norse paganist?” asked Simmons confused.

“Obsessed with anything derived from Norse mythology. Stories of Asgard” explained Skye.

“And now a weapon.”

“The scan only accounted for one side. Too much damage to the tree for complete reproduction.”

“But see here? It’s broken on both ends and…”

“So, there are more pieces?

“Yeah. Two, at least.”

“Which means Sid and Nancy may be looking for a complete set. The markings?”

“Asgardian symbolism. Hard to translate with our limited knowledge.”

“You should give you buddy, the God of Thunder a shout. He gets his power from his hammer, right? What if this is his nail to the hammer?”

“I already did. Director Fury told me he’s off the grid. And if he has a cell phone, we don’t have the number.”

“S.H.E.I.L.D.’s investigations are on the trail of Nystrom and his followers,” said May.

“We’re charged with identifying the object and finding any other pieces before they do.”

“They seem to have some advantage. They found this thing in 150 square kilometres of a Norwegian forest.”

“When we first found the hammer in New Mexico, I consulted one of the world’s leading experts on Norse mythology. Elliot Randolph. A professor at a university in Seville. We’ll leave immediately. Maybe he can tell us more about these markings.”

“Professor Randolph.”

“Agent Coulson. Come in, come in. well, I’m assuming you found something on the ground in London?”

“In a tree in Norway, and unfortunately, we weren’t the ones who found it.”

“It’s a 3D model.”

“Oh, that is amazing. Well, based on these runes, I’d say I’m looking at a piece of the Berserker staff. From the Berserker army.”


	9. Season 1 Episode 9 - Repairs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A mysterious force haunts the team.

“We don’t believe that people have telekinetic powers, do we?” asked Simmons.

“Well, May was forced to sedate her. The woman made a police car move with her mind.”

“There is no scientific principle that would support…”

“Telekinesis. Not yet. We did believe for a bit though, remember? Freshman year? When Sally Webber made the books fall off the table in neurobiology.”

“Oh, well, that was a particularly cruel prank.”

“You screamed like a girl.”

“I am a girl.”

“You know, that’s the one drawback of graduating three years early. We never got to pull any freshman pranks on anyone else.”

“Um. Fitz. Neither did Skye, and everyone was too scared to pull pranks on a twelve-year-old. In the eyes of pranks, she’s still a freshman. And being pranks is an integral part of becoming a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent.”

“Well, mandatory.”

“I just don’t understand her at all. Everything to her is just, ‘Target acquired. Threat eliminated’,” Skye said to Ward, she found it fun to rant about her mum, and for her cover so if she walked in, Skye could just tell her it was for her cover.

“Well, she’s a specialist.”

“In one thing. You can catch a lot more flies with honey than with napalm. Just saying.”

“Hand me the lettuce?”

“And she says I need to stay away, but you know what I think? I think she needs to relax.”

“Might want to be less confrontational with Agent May.”

“You’re sleeping with her!” she said walking off.

“Mum,” Skye said, walking into the cockpit, “Why are you sleeping with the target? You are still happily married, right? Also, why are you sleeping with ‘my SO’?”

“Skye, it is a part of the mission, you are the student for him, FitzSimmons are the friends, Coulson is the boss and I was the partner.”

“Does Dad know?”

“Yes, I agreed on it with him, I wouldn’t choose to, but it was a direct order from Fury himself.”

“Why would he suggest that?” she said to herself disgusted as she walked out.

“Try not to hurt her any more than you already have, mother.”

“How can you let mum have an affair, it’s just wrong, even if it was ordered by the Director himself, you didn’t even consult me. I also learn twisted tales of what went down in Bahrain. Did she kill 100 guys of just 20?”

“That’s not how it went down. She didn’t have a gun. None of us did. And it wasn’t a rescue, or an assault, whatever they say at the Academy these days. We were the Welcome Wagon. And it went south.”

“How many…”

“Plenty. A civilian girl and a few of our guys were stuck inside a building being held by the followers of this gifted individual. Or worshippers. We never found out.”

“Mum did.”

“She took it upon herself to get them out. Said she could fix the problem. So she went in, crossed off the enemy force. Didn’t say how.”

“Did she lose anyone in there?”

“Herself.”

“It feels like such a long time ago, but she used to be different, you were just a kid. She was always quiet, she just… she was warm. Fearless in a different way. Getting in trouble, pulling pranks. Thought rules were meant to be broken. Sound familiar? But when she walked out of that building, it was like a part of her was gone. I tried to comfort her, but she wouldn’t tell me what went down in there.”

“What did you say?”

“I said the words I thought she needed to hear.”

“That’s why you want her on the plane. To see if that person is still in there somewhere.”

“You might be adopted, but you are so much alike, you should talk to her.”

“Mum, can we talk,” she said, hugging her, “I’m sorry about earlier, I was annoyed with you sleeping with my SO and just overall disgusted by it, and I didn’t understand what happened years ago, I thought you hated me, although I was an immature child.”

“I didn’t hate you, I never would, I just didn’t know how to talk about it, and you had just started Operations so I didn’t want to discourage you from being an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D..”


	10. Season 1 Episode 10 - The Bridge

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Coulon takes the war back to Centipede in a shocking cliffhanger

“Mission briefing in five minutes,” said Coulson to Skye.

“OK.”

“Katherine Shane?”

“Do you know her?”

“We ran a few ops together in the ‘90s. Smart. Resourceful. Had a soft spot for Truffaut movies.”

“Easy dad, according to these files, Agent Shane could be my biological mum.”

“Even if Shane was the agent who dropped you off at the orphanage, it doesn’t mean she's your biological mother.”

“I looked into all the female agents active when I was born. Needle, haystack, I know. But then I factored in age and marital status, and then I built a program to narrow down the field.”

“You’re still looking at a long road.”

“It would be easier if any file on my wasn’t clearance level 10.”

“On my mark, activate comms and tracker,” said May.

“If there’d been any other way…” said Mike as they took Coulson.

“You made the only choice you had,” said Coulson, they sedate him and take him away.


	11. Season 1 Episode 11 - The Magical Place

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Secrets and lies are revealed as the team sets out to rescue Coulson.

“We have a security breach. Someone’s hacking the system,” said Agent Hand.

“Just in time. Can you override this?”

“What do you think you’re doing?” asked Hand, she knew about Skye’s cover but with Ward around, she couldn’t say anything.

“The money trail’s our key to finding Coulson. I just need to gain access to Vanchat’s financials, and from there, I should be able to trace Centipede’s payments and then hack into their account.”

“I want you off this plane, immediately!”

“Ma’am, I’m sorry, it’s just Skye doesn’t care about protocol,” said May.

“Something’s changed with you?”

“Have you heard of Agent 10, Shadows?”

“Yes, who hasn’t?”

“Well, she is the adoptive child of Coulson and me, who happens to be in an undercover op, playing an orphaned hacker who joined S.H.I.E.L.D. as a consultant after leaving the Rising Tide.”

“I know Skye is Agent 10, I want her for her investigation, she knows this already.”

Later, when Skye finds Coulson.

“It’s for his good,” said Raina as Skye punches her.

“Please let me die! Please let me die! Please let me die. Let me die. Let me die, please,” screamed Coulson.

“Dad. Dad. Come back. Come back. Come back. Come back.”

“Skye. Skye…”

They were all standing waiting for Coulson’s return.

“Nice jacket,” Agent May says to her daughter.

“I heard what you did for me.”

“I only did what any daughter would do for their father,” she said, “Back in that room. Did they learn anything?”

“No.”

“Did you? I heard what you were saying. I never want to see that again.”


	12. Season 1 Episode 12 - Seeds

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team head out to investigate a case at the Academy

“There is nothing more unsettling. Being a part of something so horrible. Completely unaware. The cadet could’ve died,” said Simmons.

“We drew up those concepts years ago. We didn’t know they’d be applied in that way.

“Is this the device they found in the pool? Correction, the instantly frozen indoor pool?” asked Skye.

“Seems like it was planted in the filter days before. Like someone was waiting for those specific cadets,” said Ward.

“Well, as far as they can tell, the device uses a crystalline nucleation process she designed,” explained Fitz.

“And a delivery mechanism he invented. That’s why we’re being asked to consult on the investigation,” finished Simmons.

 **Skye:** so, we are going to the Academy?

 **Ward:** science and technology division. Connected pretty shaken after what happened. Agent Weaver asked if you two could speak to the student body about potentiality. Calm them down.

 **Simmons:** of course. The talk. We've all heard the talk.

 **Skye:** I haven't [truthfully, she's had it many, many times]

 **Ward:** I guess you will

 **Skye:** well, I've heard a lot about the Academy. I'm excited to finally see it. [more like she's excited she said for the first time in a while]

 **Ward:** me too. Never been to sci-tech before.

 **Skye:** never? Half. The different SHIELD academies don't interact.

 **Ward:** not much. Academy of communications does. But then the biggest and focus on data analysis.

 **Simmons:** by far the easiest to get into.

 **Ward:** I heard the allowed an 8 year old to join.

 **Skye:** Sweet

 **Ward:** Operations Is the most aggressive programme. More people were shouting operations and the other academies.

 **Skye:** So, which one is the hardest to get into? I'm facing up on the rivalry between science and operations. You and Coulson past all that, or are you going to help Ward steal their mascot?

 **May:** We're not going to stop after you drop you off, Coulson and I have other matters to attend to. [May walked off]

 **Skye:** Colton hasn't come out of his office in a while. D’you think he's a right?

 **Ward:** we saw him at a low. That's not easy for anybody. Coulson’s as good as they come. He'll be good. Just need to give him time. Well he take that time, let’s focus on the mission.

**Simmons:** This was the SSR facility before SHIELD was even founded. SSR stands for –

 **Skye:** Strategic Scientific Reserve. Yeah, I know. Is this where you get all your PhD’s?

 **Simmons:** Oh, no, you need at least one to get through the door.

 **Fitz:** Science and Technology what you imagined, Agent Ward?

 **Ward:** Yep. No uniforms. No rope course. No defined muscularity on anyone.

 **Fitz:** No marching into place. No IQs in double digits.

 **Agent Weaver:** There they are. SO good to see you.

 **Simmons:** You look as lovely as ever

 **Fitz:** I concur

 **Agent Weaver:** Thank you

 **Skye:** You must be Agent Weaver, I’m Skye [winking]

 **Agent Weaver:** Nice to meet you. [winking] Agent Ward, a pleasure to have you, sir.

 **Ward:** Agent Weaver. There’s a list of suspects?

 **Agent Weaver:** Based on the level of intelligence it would take to put a device together like the one we found; we’ve narrowed it down to the top 10% of our cadets. I’m worried there’s a bad seed.

 **Ward:** Ops and Sciences have differences, but both have to be careful about what we call ‘bad seed’. People want to use the same tools we give them…

 **Skye:** ‘bad seed’ isn’t a SHIELD term, Ward. Just a term.

 **Ward:** I know you’ve already questioned the victim, but I have a few questions I’d like to ask myself.

 **Agent Weaver:** I’ll arrange for you to talk to Seth Dormer when he’s out of class. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’d like to get Agent Fitz and Simmons settled into the lecture hall.

**Skye:** Huh, Bucky Barnes. [Ward comes in] The Wall of Valour

 **Ward:** So, you’ve read about it?

 **Skye:** Every SHIELD facility has a memorial to the agents lost in the line of duty. SHIELDs history can be traced on walls like this.

 **Ward:** Puts it in perspective what we do

 **Skye:** Must make you guys proud. All tis history. Just wish I were a part of it. Its not self-pity, really. I’m just saying, everyone has earned this. They deserve it. I hacked my way in. Feels like I cheated.

 **Ward:** All you need to join is a dedication to the greater good. Coulson saw that in you the moment he met you.

[In the lecture hall. Ward is not in here; he’s talking to the victim]

 **Agent Weaver:** Today, we’re proud to welcome back three of SHIELD Academy’s finest. Some of our youngest graduates to date. You know their names. Please join me in welcoming Agent Leopold Fitz and Agent Jemma Simmons. We have another guest but she is unable to reveal any details due to an undercover mission.

 **Simmons:** Thank you Agent Weaver. It’s nice to be back. Unfortunately, it has to bee under these circumstances.

 **Fitz:** If you don’t know the history of SHIELD by now, there’s no excuse. Unless you fell asleep in Professor Vaughn’s class, that’s a perfectly acceptable excuse.

 **Simmons:** Our instinct, as scientists, is to move forward, advance quickly, push the envelope. But given recent events, it makes sense to reflect back on our history.

 **Fitz:** SHIELD was founded after the SSR was able to defeat the nearly indomitable force known as HYDRA.

 **Simmons:** We tend to forget that these organisations, HYDRA, Centipede, AIM, were also made up of extremely brilliant scientists. Men and women who started with the same unlimited potential as you or I.

 **Fitz:** Potential can sometimes be dangerous. Plutonium has the potential to power a city, or to be a nuclear bomb.

 **Simmons:** Today we’d like to share a few stories from the field in which we learned this lesson, up close. And faced the consequences when untested technology or biology lands in the wrong hands. And don’t worry, we brought pictures.

**Simmons:** And when we get there?

 **Ward:** We mingle, low key. You and Skye get comfortable with the students, see if you can get them gossiping. Skye is young enough to blend in. I want Fitz to talk to Donnie. He looks up to you. Go hang out with him. Even if he has no clue who might go after him, he could use a friend. So, where are we going?

 **Simmons:** SHIELD keeps careful watch of everything within their wall. So, in the late 60s to escape the cameras and the prying eyes of the faculty, a few cadets started sneaking down to The Boiler Room to play cards, exchange ideas… some amazing breakthroughs have come out of here, like the truth serum, etc. so the tradition lives on.

 **Ward:** Of cramming into The Boiler Room? [Skye had to hold onto her sniggers]

 **Simmons:** Well, over the years, we’ve made a few improvements. Do you have one of these at Operations?

 **Ward:** No

 **Simmons:** Did not think so

**Fitz:** A battery that carries a terawatt of energy? That is amazing.

 **Danny:** Would be. If it worked. I’m – I’m close. I’ve built some quarter scale. They work at that size, but the heat increases at a 4:1 ration with scale.

 **Fitz:** and it melts down. Why not use oxygen? Breathe it in from the outside? Sure, it’s not gonna react as well with the lithium ion, but the cooling effect would surly make up for that discrepancy.

 **Danny:** That’s insane

 **Fitz:** But you should show it to Agent Weaver before you test it. You have no idea how powerful this thing could be.

 **Danny:** of course. Wow. I’m sorry, that was awesome. It’s true what the others say, you are the smartest person to come through here.

 **Fitz:** Is that what they say? Yeah. Well, Simmons is probably smarter, technically, but that’s because she likes homework more than life itself. Shadows, as well, she went to Communications at age 8, Op’s at 10, Sci-Tech at age 12.

 **Danny:** Wow! Why wasn’t she part of the lecture?

 **Fitz:** Legend says, she never shows her face to those who don’t know her identity. Director Fury and Commander Hill won’t allow it because of her age.

[Later when Coulson is telling his daughter about why he and his wife weren’t with them at the Academy.]

 **Skye:** Dad, it can’t be worse that what I’ve imagined.

 **Coulson:** The agent who dropped you at St. Agnes was not your mother. But she was killed trying to protect you. Fifteen years ago, an entire SHIELD team and a small town were massacred … [he went on]


	13. Season 1 Episode 13 - T.R.A.C.K.S.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team boards a mysterious train that seems headed for certain death.

[Skye is in the mansion and she has found Mike.]

 **Skye:** Mike.

 **Quinn:** Hello Skye. The Clairvoyant told me to expect you.

 **Unknown man:** Signore Quinn, this is the same gun as the specs you gave us.

 **Quinn:** You guys have been looking at us. Well, we’ve been looking at you. And we found a handful of some particularly interesting things.

[Mike comes out of the tube]

 **Skye:** Mike. Oh, God. You’re alive.

 **Quinn:** That’s right. You two know each other. Hey. Do you know who I am? And do you have your orders? Good. Because I purchased something that’s gonna help you complete them.

 **Skye:** Orders? Mike. What is happening here? Mike.

 **Quinn:** Stand please.

 **Mike:** Ahhh

 **Quinn:** Mancini, thank you. You will be receiving your payment shortly. That is the best money can buy, my friend. Every piece of technology in you is top of the line. I just wonder if I'm getting my money’s worth. I know you get your orders from The Clairvoyant. So that means you're not allowed to hurt me, right? No. What is I tried to hurt you? Would you stop me?

 **Mike:** No, I would not.

 **Skye:** Mike, listen. I don’t know what they’re doing to you, but we have to get out of here. Now.

 **Quinn:** And if I wanted you to hurt her? You know, to kill her, will you? I mean, what would hurt Agent Coulson more than to lose his pet project?

 **Mike:** Those aren’t my orders. She’s not who I’m supposed to kill.

 **Skye:** Wait. Wait. Wait! What the hell did you do to him?

[Quinn shoots Skye twice in the stomach]

 **Quinn:** I’m sorry. I have my orders too

 **Skye:** Help!

**Coulson:** Where’s Skye

 **Fitz:** She didn’t want to let Quinn get away. She pulled rank.

 **Coulson:** Where’s Skye?

 **Quinn:** You know, Agent Coulson, it’s dangerous to keep sending her in like that, all alone. When she means so much to you.

 **Coulson:** Search the house. Find her! Now!

**Coulson:** Oh… No. Oh, no. Oh, God. Simmons! Get down here! Oh, God. Hang on. Just hang on, ok? [Simmons walks in] She’s been shot.

 **Simmons:** Keep her upright.

 **Coulson:** I got no pulse.

 **Simmons:** She’s lost too much blood. Put her in there.

 **Ward:** Do you even know what that thing is?

 **Simmons:** It’s a hyperbaric chamber. As I said, put her in there. Now, I need to get her temperature down, Fitz.

 **Fitz:** Temperature’s dropping.

 **Simmons:** Pressure’s stabilising

 **May:** Is it working?

 **Coulson:** Is it working?!

 **Simmons:** For now.

**Simmons:** Her core temperature’s hovering around 44.5oF. If we don’t bring her back up to temp in the next few hours, she could sustain permanent brain damage. We need to get her to a medical facility, and fast. Until then, I’ll do everything I can to keep her alive. Excuse me.

**Coulson:** Come in

 **May:** Fury knows the best doctors, he’ll save our daughter

 **Coulson:** Her cover could’ve had a gun, but her cover made it illegal to hold a gun.

 **May:** That’s not your fault. This is all Quinn’s fault. Blaming yourself won’t help her


	14. Season 1 Episode 14 - T.A.H.I.T.I.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Coulson goes on the attack to save Skye

**Coulson:** She was shot twice in the abdomen at close range almost two hours ago.

 **Simmons:** She’s tachycardic by potentise and lost a significant amount of blood. We had to lower her core body temp in order to transport her here.

 **Doctor:** That’s probably what kept her alive this long. We’ll do everything we can.

**Coulson:** How is she?

 **Doctor:** Not good. The shots perforated her stomach and penetrated the large and small intestines. We resected what we could, but … there’s been too much damage.

 **Coulson:** So, what’s next?

 **Doctor:** We can keep her comfortable, but you’ll need to make a decision on whether or not you wanna keep her on life-support.

 **Coulson:** You’re saying there’s nothing to be done?

 **Doctor:** I’m saying you need to call her family. Get them here as soon as possible.

 **Coulson:** we’re her family

 **Doctor:** In that case, I’m very sorry.

**Quinn:** Finally. I was beginning to think… [May attacks him] wait! You can’t!

 **May:** Why? Because you’re defenceless? Like she was?

 **Coulson:** May! May! May! Outside now!

[Outside]

 **May:** He deserves to die. Not her.

 **Coulson:** Agreed. But right now, Quinn doesn’t matter. Only Skye. Does and I need you to pilot the plane.

 **May:** You heard the doctor

 **Coulson:** She said there was nothing more they could do for her. But there are doctors who brought me back from the dead. If they can do that, I’m betting they can save Skye.

**Coulson:** Garrett? What the hell are you doing here?

 **Garrett:** Well, as opposed to the Level 8 jackass I’m staring at, I still follow orders.

 **Coulson:** You’re the worst at following orders.

 **Garrett:** Maybe, but I like this one. You are to immediately turn Ian Guinn over for transport to the Fridge. Agent Antoine Triplett, Agent Phil Coulson. You wouldn’t know it to look at him, but Phil’s one of our fines.

 **Triplett:** An honour, sir

 **Garrett:** Trip joined me as my specialist after Ward came to your circus. Go secure the prisoner.

 **Triplett:** Yes, sir

 **Garrett:** Phil, come on. Just because Fury gave you this pretty plane, doesn’t mean they won’t shoot it out the sky.

 **Coulson:** Why are you really here, Garrett? SHELD could’ve sent any security team to collect Quinn. Why you? You’ve been chasing him, too?

 **Garrett:** Since Malta. Then yesterday, your little Italian job cost my team weeks of work.

 **Coulson:** You can’t have him. Not yet.

 **Garrett:** This isn’t a request

 **Coulson:** Quinn shot one of my agents. She’s on life support in a med pod downstairs. We’re taking her to a trauma centre in Bethesda.

 **Garrett:** Quinn actually pulled the trigger?

 **Coulson:** Skye infiltrated his compound in Malta. When he saw her yesterday, it seems he took it personally.

 **Garrett:** I never took him as a triggerman. He pays others for that. I’ve lost three men of my own chasing him.

 **Coulson:** Then you can understand why I can’t give him to you until we save my agent?

 **Garrett:** Because if she doesn’t make it…

**Triplett:** Tough when its your team. You guys go back a way?

 **Simmons:** The Academy. She’s your friend.

 **Triplett:** So, you know? She must hate her cover. We grew up together. Coulson’s close with Fury and so was my mother, you get the idea.


	15. Season 1 Episode 15 - Yes Men

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Coulson and his team are attacked by Lorelei

**Simmons:** No, what did I say?

 **Skye:** Darn it. Every time. It’s like you have a sensor for whenever my butt lifts off the bed.

 **Simmons:** Back in it. Now.

 **Skye:** I just wanna stretch my legs. Look. There’s colour in my cheeks. Breathing without feeling like my whole body’s on fire. I’m good.

 **Simmons:** ‘good’ is not the appropriate word to describe your state. You’ve been shot twice, had your stomach perforated, and a breathing tube shoved down your throat. ‘better’ is a more accurate word.

 **Skye:** Again, with the blood drive? Not gonna have anything left. Not sure how I feel about Dr Simmons. She so strict. Ow, and pokey.

 **Simmons:** Well, patient Skye is unruly and stubborn.

 **Skye:** and grateful. I hope you know that.

 **Simmons:** I didn’t do it alone.

 **Skye:** Still, I’m the most gratefulest-est patient alive.

 **Simmons:** That’s not even a word.

 **Ward:** Hey. This a bad time?

 **Skye:** It is if you’re here to bust me out. ‘The warden has extended house arrest’ [Skye faked a fake British accent]

 **Simmons:** Awful accent

**Skye:** I know that face, and something gives me the feeling I should be sitting down for this.

 **Coulson:** I’ve been looking for a way to tell you this. Looking around for some answers, something to help explain… But I don’t have any. So… the drug, the one that saved us both… when we found it, I discovered something else, its source. It was alien.

 **Skye:** Alien, as in unfamiliar?

 **Coulson:** No

 **Skye:** Wow.

 **Coulson:** The minute I learned what it was, I tried to keep them from injecting you with it, but I was too late. I’m so sorry Skye.

 **Skye:** You were trying to save my life. You did save my life.

 **Coulson:** I was desperate to, so I subjected you to unknown ramifications, or side effects.

 **Skye:** I’m sorry to say this, Dad, but so what? We are alive. And you’ve had that stuff in you for some time now, and you’re ok, right? Without the drug, I would have lost my dad at 14. Plus, you’re not sprouting a pointy tail or anything, so bonus there.

 **Coulson:** I know nothing fazes you, but this should faze you. We are completely in the dark on this.

 **Skye:** That’s where we live. I’m an 0-8-4. Who knows what the hell that means? At least we’re in the dark together.

 **Coulson:** Yes. But not for long. To hell with any protocols, or any code I used to be bound by. We have a long list of questions we need answers for, and we’re going after them ourselves.

 **Skye:** well if the teams up to it…

 **Coulson:** No. no, listen to me. I trust them, but we need to protect them from this. Fury went to dangerous lengths to keep this under wraps. Lied to me, lied to SHIELD. This is a powerful secret. A secret men died for. Until we know why, we cant share this with anyone. For their safety, and ours.

 **Skye:** Got it. But I hate lying to Mum.


	16. Season 1 Episode 16 - End of the Beginning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team are hot on the trail for the Clairvoyant.

**Agent Hand:** You realise, Agent Coulson, they have these things called teleconferences now.

 **Coulson:** Nice to see you too, Agent Hand. Thank you all for coming at such short notice.

 **Agent Sitwell:** Little unconventional meeting this way, isn’t it?

 **Agent Blake:** From the reports I’ve read, ‘unconventional’ seems to be Coulson’s middle name these days

 **Garrett:** Fight breaks out, let me take Blake. He’s coy, but scrappy.

 **Coulson:** I’ll explain everything as soon as we hit 50,000 feet. This way.

**May:** Cruising altitude reached, bearing 90 degrees just over the North Pole.

 **Garrett:** Apologies for the song and dance. We brought you here as a precaution.

 **Agent Sitwell:** a precaution against what?

 **Coulson:** The Clairvoyant. If there is someone out there who can read minds, at least up here we’re as faraway from him as possible.

 **Garrett:** think that maybe the northern lights will knock a few bars off his psychic Wi-Fi.

 **Agent Blake:** Coulson, you know SHIELDs stance of psychics. They don’t exist.

 **Agent Hand:** Are you suddenly a believer?

 **Coulson:** Not definitely. But I had a recent experience with an Asgardian who could bend people’s will with her voice. Forced me to open my mind, so to speak.

 **Garrett:** All we know for sure is The Clairvoyant’s been a step ahead of us, stealing plays from our playbook.

 **Coulson:** And he’s making me angry. I take it you’ve all read Agent Garrett’s latest report.

 **Agent Sitwell:** The hit in the safe house. Mr Peterson’s alive and kicking

 **May:** We call him Deathlok

 **Ward:** that was the project’s codename

 **Triplett:** Agent Garrett and I have been tracking him the last few weeks.

 **Garrett:** And we think The Clairvoyant’s super-soldier bodyguard came after us for a reason. We’re getting close.

 **Agent Hand:** To what? His identity?

 **Coulson:** We’ve narrowed the list to 13 candidates.

 **Agent Blake:** Narrowed it down? From what?

 **Coulson:** Agent Garrett has been taking a second look at SHIELD’s gifted index. Specifically, the rejects. Individuals SHIELD interviewed who are believed to have psychic abilities but were ultimately dismissed.

 **Agent Sitwell:** So, you think we’ve encountered The Clairvoyant before?

 **Coulson:** Think how many cases we’ve vetted, it’s more that possible, it’s probable.

 **Agent Blake:** I need more coffee

 **Agent Hand:** let’s assume what you’re saying is possible, what then? If we’re going up against a natural clairvoyant, how do you suggest we combat that?

 **Garrett:** by compartmentalizing the information.

 **Coulson:** A member of my team is an expert at pattern recognition and analysis. Finding needles in haystacks. She’ll prioritize the candidates on Garrett; s list, locate them, then pair us off into random teams.

 **Garrett:** that way only one person knows the full scope of the mission.

 **Agent Hand:** you do understand that this person you’re referring to, she’d need to be a SHIELD agent to be granted that level of access.

 **Coulson:** I’m glad you brought this up.

**Skye:** Pairing off makes total sense. Just one thought though. What if we make it a double blind?

 **Agent Hand:** How so?

 **Skye:** well, I’ll give one person from each team the potential clairvoyants coordinates, and I’ll give the other one the identity. That way no one person knows the full specs of the op until you get there.

 **Garrett:** I like how you think. I like how she thinks

 **Skye:** one question. How am I supposed to access all the classified files without someone in the room? I don’t have clearance.

 **Coulson:** Now you do. Welcome to SHIELD, Skye. [hands Skye her badge.]

 **Skye:** I… I don’t know what to say. Thank you.

 **Coulson:** Don’t tank me. You’ve passed every required SHIELD exam with flying colours

 **Agent And:** for a level 1 agent

 **Coulson:** You’ve assisted us on multiple field missions, put your life on the line. You earned this.

 **Garrett:** hell, you took two in the gut. More than Sitwell here’s ever done.

 **Coulson:** Ok everyone, back to work.

 **Skye:** On this phone, you’ll find a set of coordinates that will lead you to one of the three potential clairvoyants I’ve chosen. When you’re within a mile, your partner will be granted access to the coordinated name and profile on their phone. Make sense?

 **Garrett:** you know, we haven’t officially met. John Garrett.

 **Skye:** I guess lying unconscious on a gurney really should not count.

 **Garrett:** How’re you doing?

 **Skye:** A lot better actually

 **Garrett:** I’ve been shot a couple of times myself. Back, shoulder. Had my throat cut once. But you know the toughest one? Thing about a third degree burn, the burn itself doesn’t hurt at all. Crazy, right? The nerve endings get all fried. But the area around the burn? That smarts. Still, gut shots the worst.

 **Skye:** Sir, I know what you did for me. How you risked your life to save me. So, thank you.

 **Garrett:** You’ve got a good team around you. I just jumped on the bandwagon.

 **Skye:** Well, you trained one of them, sir.

 **Garrett:** Guess it all comes full circle. Ward’s your SO I was his. Turn, turn, turn. But this SO thing goes both ways. You’ve had a big impact on him. He’s different than I remember him.

 **Skye:** Different how?

 **Garrett:** well, the tough thing about being a specialist is being alone. A team gives you a whole new perspective. Guess it’s the difference between fighting against something and fighting for something. Or someone. Ward’s got that now. Thanks for this. And, Skye, lose the ‘sir’. I’m a SHIELD agent, just like you. [he left]

 **Skye:** Well, I’m a higher level and clearance than you’ll ever be.

**Skye:** ok, you’re all set.

 **Coulson:** hope you paired me with someone good. Or interesting, at least. Stop worrying. You wear your heart on you sleave, and your face. I trust your judgement. The way you see the world, it’s different than the rest of us. You’ve spent your life since you were 8 years old in this organisation. As you’ve said to me countless times before going on a mission and your mother and I are anxious about you, you can’t remember a life when you weren’t a SHIELD agent, you grew up in the organisation, so unlike some people, you know how it works. You can spot something wrong immediately. That’s why I want you to dig deeper into these.

 **Skye:** the candidates’ psych evaluations?

 **Coulson:** The Clairvoyant thinks he can read our minds. See if you can read his. We need some insight into what this person really is. A weakness. So, do what you do. Find the exploit. And stop worrying.

**Triplett:** So, Garrett says your family’s like the cable version of the Kennedys

 **Ward:** Huh! I doubt he said that.

 **Triplett:** Fine. I did my own research. Had to, following in golden boy’s footsteps [it wasn’t a lie, he did research him, just not for that reason]

 **Ward:** there’s a point to this?

 **Triplett:** just trying to keep things light.

 **Ward:** ‘cause that’s what we need right now?

 **Triplett:** You know, maybe it is

 **Ward:** you wanna keep it light? The Clairvoyant almost killed Skye.

 **Triplett:** Yeah? Well, he did kill my partner: Dan Monroe. Great guy had a son. You know what’s like telling a six-year-old that his dad isn’t coming home? So, we find The Clairvoyant, you might want to stay out of my way.

**Agent Blake:** Are you a Scorpio? It’s just, wondering why your daughter paired the two of us together. Must have thought we were compatible in some way.

 **May:** It was random, Blake.

 **Agent Blake:** You seem like a Scorpio.

 **May:** You don’t believe in The Clairvoyant, but you believe in astrology.

 **Agent Blake:** I have some theory of my own. How is Shadow, anyway?

 **May:** She’s a level 9 agent whose cover only just made it to being a level 1 agent, how do you think she’s doing?

 **Agent Blake:** sorry I asked. Pease tell me we’re here for one of the doctors.

**Skye:** Mind if I talk some stuff through with you? Are you busy?

 **Coulson:** I’m worried.

 **Skye:** About Ward? I know. I can’t believe he’d just kill someone like that, I know he is against SHIELD and all, but…

 **Coulson:** I’m worried he killed the wrong man. How do we know its him? He never spoke, the computer spoke for him. How do we know he was the one controlling it?

 **Skye:** are you saying Nash could have been pretending to be The Clairvoyant?

 **Coulson:** I’m saying Nash could’ve been a prop

 **Skye:** and now he’s dead.

 **Coulson:** after the attacks led us right to him. The investigation all wrapped up in a neat little bow. I feel like he could still be out there, right now, in our heads.

 **Skye:** or in our files. When you told me to check into the psych evals, you said something, you said, “read his mind”. And that got me thinking. Ward said that The Clairvoyant knew how to push the right buttons.

 **Coulson:** Reina did that to me, too

 **Skye:** Did she mention Grandpa’s death? Your psych evaluation called it a ‘defining moment’. These aren’t just personality tests. They’re surveillance on every agent. Pictures. Stats. Where you’ve been stationed, who you visit, where you like to eat.

 **Coulson:** ‘Dinners at the Richmond’. He’s been monitoring us. Think about it. The Clairvoyant only knew you’d be at Quinn’s villa…

 **Skye:** after I dropped the tracker. And the only thing he had trouble seeing is what happened to you after you died and me.

 **Coulson:** because Director Fury wouldn’t release those files to anyone.

 **Skye:** No

 **Coulson:** The Clairvoyant doesn’t have abilities. He has security clearance. He’s and Agent of SHIELD.

**Fitz:** Why would May have an unauthorised encrypted hardline in the cockpit, complete with thumb scanner? Hat isn’t in any of the phone specs.

 **Skye:** slow down, an encrypted hardline?

 **Fitz:** Yeah, dedicated to one receiver. She’s not supposed to have that. Who is she talking to?

 **Coulson:** Cut the line

 **Fitz:** hat?

 **Coulson:** you need to cut the line, right now, Fitz. Do not let her call out!

**Skye:** Mum, why do you have an encrypted line in the cockpit?

 **May:** How do you know…

 **Skye:** It doesn’t matter how I know. I want to know why.

 **May:** It is a direct line to Director Fury.

 **Skye:** Why do you need one of those?

 **May:** He wants to know how your father was doing after TAHITI and New York.

 **Skye:** so, you were spying on him. Your own husband. On me?

 **May:** Not on you.

 **Skye:** But you knew about TAHITI. [plane reroutes] what did you do?

 **May:** Nothing. I swear

 **Skye:** But who is?


	17. Season 1 Episode 17 - Turn, turn, turn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Coulson and his team have nowhere to turn

**Skye:** [walking into Coulson’s office with May and Fitz] Dad! Mum has an encrypted line directly to Uncle Nick.

 **Coulson:** What! You were reporting to him?

 **May:** That’s all I can tell you. I’m under orders Fury will tell you.

 **Coulson:** Hang on. We’re not headed to Fury anymore.

 **May:** I don’t know where we’re headed. And I can’t get Fury on the line because Fitz cut the line.

 **Fitz:** Skye told me to

 **Skye:** Someone was talking to The Clairvoyant. The real Clairvoyant.

 **May:** You were in the walls, Fitz. You wanna explain why you were tampering with the plane’s sat cables?

 **Fitz:** I was trying to talk to Simmons at the Hub. She’s trying to figure out ho the drug that saved your life worked.

 **Coulson:** Skye, get your laptop hooked up to our systems. See if you can pull up any SHIELD communications. I wanna know where this plane is headed, and why.

**Skye:** It is a single message repeated, semantic encoding. I needed to find the mnemonic key. It should only take me a minute more to decipher.

 **Garrett:** can I ask the obvious question? What the hell?

 **Coulson:** We don’t know. We don’t even know where our plane is headed.

 **Garrett:** Oh, I saw your trajectory. You’re being tractor-beamed straight to the Hub. Those drones were launched out of there, for sure [five seconds later] Victoria Hand.

 **Fitz:** Hand?

 **Skye:** The Clairvoyant. [Of course, they all knew this couldn’t be true because the Clairvoyant didn’t know about Skye’s true identity and Agent Hand did.]

 **Garrett:** I thought Ward capped that guy.

 **Coulson:** I don’t believe the man Ward killed was the Clairvoyant. I think he was an unwilling decoy to end our investigation.

 **Garrett:** That’s a lot of trouble to go through for a red herring, don’t you think?

 **Coulson:** Because the Clairvoyant is a SHIELD agent, using high-level clearance to stay ahead of us, make it seem like she’s got psychic abilities.

 **Garrett:** She? You think Victoria Hand’s the Clairvoyant? I don’t mean to pee in the punch bowl, but that doesn’t make a lot of sense. I was stationed with Vic in Lisbon. She’s a buzzkill at parties, I grant you, but is she really capable of that?

 **Coulson:** Didn’t she just try and blow you out of the sky.

 **Skye:** Guys…

 **Coulson:** ‘out of the shadows, into the light,’ [Skye had to hide her offence to that saying, she was going to say that at the annual SHIELD Gala when she was 18 and was allowed to reveal her identity.]

 **Garrett:** Well, I’ll be. [he said as the word HYDRA appeared on the screen.]

**Fitz:** I thought HYDRA was defeated after WWII

 **Coulson:** It was. SHIELD was founded in the wake of that victory.

 **Garrett:** HYDRA always comes back

 **Coulson:** Cut off one head, two more shall take its place

**Simmons:** You’re positive this line is secure?

 **Triplett:** Yeh but be quick. Nothing looks more guilty than sneaking around.

 **Simmons:** I sent her a request, she must not have … Agent Weaver, thank you for joining me. I’ve been –

 **Agent Weaver:** Jemma, thank God you’re still alive.

 **Simmons:** What, what’s wrong?

 **Agent Weaver:** Is the Hub still secure? Are you with your team? Get somewhere safe and lock the door.

 **Simmons:** What’s happening?

 **Agent Weaver:** Have your commander … The Academy is under siege … We don’t know how long HYDRA’s been inside SHIELD, but they are taking control!

 **Simmons:** HYDRA? What? Where?

 **Agent Weaver:** Jemma, don’t trust anyone! [Triplett locks the door]

 **Triplett:** You can trust me.

 **Simmons:** How can I?

 **Triplett:** I was sent to investigate Garrett by Commander Hill and Director Fury after learning he went against SHIELD, like Skye with Ward. How can I trust you?

 **Simmons:** I am among those that were allowed too know Skye’s identity, isn’t that enough? The Clairvoyant didn’t know anything about her.

**Coulson:** Fitz repaired your direct line. If you have the ability to make this right, now’s the time. ‘Cause you can’t make it worse.

 **May:** I have orders not to do this with anyone else present

 **Coulson:** They’re taking out our guns. Get Director Fury on the line, or I’ll march you out there first.

 **May:** Agent Melinda May. Voice Command. Emergency Protocol One. Emergency Protocol One.

 **Unknown Man:** Hello?

 **May:** This is an X1-0 straight connection to Director Fury’s personal line, where is he?

 **Unknown Man:** Director Fury is dead. [Skye ran off and Coulson ran after her]

 **Coulson:** Skye! Calm down!

 **Skye:** Calm down! Calm down! Mum was spying on you. HYDRA has been a in SHIELD for who know how long. And Uncle Nick is dead. Tell me. How do I calm down. [She gave her dad a big hug]

**Agent:** show me your hands! Show me your hands!

 **Agent Hand:** The rest of you possibly very short lives hinges on this moment. HYDRA has successfully infiltrated SHIELD at the highest level. It only took seven decades. And today is our coming out party. We have support from the level 9 and level 10 agents. And those who have resisted HYDRA have been crossed off. Director Fury included. I’m here to offer you a choice, and a simple one at that. Either swear unwavering loyalty to HYDRA right now for all times or share Fury’s fate. I won’t wait long. [Triplett attacks an agent]

 **Triplett:** Cross us off, and one of you goes too

 **Agent Hand:** Right answer. The number of people I trust is now a seven. Where are we on the round up?

 **Agent:** We’re moving all agents below level 5 to East Holding. I have men monitoring microphones placed in most of the rooms.

 **Agent Hand:** Now we need to wait for Agent Coulson or Agent 10 to prove who our main suspect for the Clairvoyant is.

 **Triplett:** Who?

 **Agent Hand:** Agent John Garrett.

**Agent Hand:** Captain America has defeated the helicarriers at the Triskelion. But his status is unknown.

 **Coulson:** And SHIELD has fallen

 **Agent Hand:** HYDRA fractions have taken control of our East African HQ and the Treehouse. And those are just the ones we know of.

 **Coulson:** it’s gonna be a scramble, a power grab.

 **Agent Hand:** I’ll head to the Fridge. At least that facility is secure.

 **Coulson:** I don’t need to remind you how imperative it is that is stay that way

 **Agent Hand:** And I’ll find Agent Garrett the smallest darkest cell in the Ice Box

 **Ward:** I’d like to turn the key on that cell myself. If you don’t mind, sir. He was my SO. I feel I … should’ve known

 **Coulson:** no one knew

**Skye:** It’s all gone

 **Simmons:** In pieces, at least

 **Skye:** FitzSimmons, get a crew together, help May patch the holes. Trip, come with me, we’re going to try and restore some of the firmware in the plane’s systems

**Agent Hand:** He’s not telling stories now, is he? You know what I’m thinking, Agent Garrett? I’m thinking the Ice Box, or the Fridge is a little more comfortable for you. Maybe we should put you a little deeper underground. What do you think, Agent Ward? You shot the wrong Clairvoyant before. Care to shoot the right one? [Ward shoots the Agents and Agent Hand]


	18. Season 1 Episode 18 - Providence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hunted by both friends and foe, Coulson's team looks for safe haven

**Skye:** I made a list of SHIELD bases we believe are secure.

 **Coulson:** How many so far? Seven?

 **Skye:** Three

 **Coulson:** Plus, the Hub?

 **Skye:** Including the Hub. It’s a preliminary list. I’m sure more will turn up. [listens to news] you were right all along. Having all this out there in the world makes it too dangerous, and now there’s no one left to protect it.

 **Coulson:** There’s us. We are lucky enough to make it through The Triskelion, The Hub? Those battles are just the beginning of this war. HYDRA’s out there now, but at least our team’s still intact. We can fight them. And we will.

**Skye:** Just bring it up to Logistics. They’ll take it. Thanks.

 **Agent:** Right away. Excuse me, sir.

 **Skye:** Good news. The Cube has been retaken. All HYDRA agents have been flushed out and are on the run.

 **Coulson:** So that makes four

 **Skye:** See? I told you more would turn up

 **May:** The hull is almost completely repaired. Flight systems are back online.

 **Coulson:** And the cargo ramp?

 **May:** Fitz assures me that it will be operational.

 **Man:** Sir, incoming transmission.

 **Talbot:** This is Colonel Glenn Talbot, US Air Force. I need to speak with whoever’s in charge over there.

 **Coulson:** Colonel Talbot, I’m Agent Phil Coulson. I’m happy we could –

 **Talbot:** Mr Coulson. It’s a real mess your boys have gotten us into.

 **Coulson:** HYDRA caught us by surprize. We knew a few were anti-SHIELD but we didn’t know what organisation and how many. But I assure you, we are going on an offensive. The Hub is secure. All remaining agents stand ready to assist you in whatever you need.

 **Talbot:** Well, that’s what we wanted to check. [Talbot ends the call]

 **Skye:** I don’t trust him.

 **Coulson:** You rarely trust anyone.

 **Skye:** He will be trouble in the coming years.

 **Coulson:** If we’re still here.

 **Skye:** And you call me pessimistic

[In Coulson’s office on the Bus]

 **Skye:** this wasn’t easy. Simmons got choked up when I asked for hers. I finally got my badge back, and now… [Coulson’s badge flashes] is that your badge?

 **Coulson:** They look like coordinates

 **Skye:** Coordinates to where?

 **Coulson:** I don’t know yet. But there’s only one person who could’ve sent these. And this is totally his style.

 **Skye:** Uncle Nick?

**Simmons:** So, Director Fury’s alive?

 **Fitz:** What did he say? Does he have a plan?

 **Coulson:** he only sent coordinates

 **Skye:** The coordinates should put us somewhere in the Canadian wilderness.

 **Fitz:** What exactly are we looking for?

 **Coulson:** It’s unclear. Maybe a rally point of some kind.

 **Simmons:** Sir, have you and Director Fury used this form of communication before?

 **Coulson:** Never

 **Simmons:** Then how can you be sure –

 **Coulson:** ‘Cause this is how he operates. Nick Fury gave me this badge. When he did, I swore an oath. We all did. To be humanity’s last line of defence. To be the shield. These coordinates mean something. I’m certain of it. Fury also gave me this plane. Anyone wants off? Chutes are in the bay. Help yourself.

**Skye:** You think he’s ok?

 **May:** It’s been a rough couple of days.

 **Skye:** That’s not what I meant

 **May:** Don’t act like you know what Fury had me do?

 **Skye:** I still had to do things, like pretend I don’t have parents, or I am a high-school dropout.

 **May:** I know.

 **Skye:** Well, he had you spy on Dad for a reason. So, what was it?

 **May:** Fury was concerned about Coulson finding out the truth. The doctors felt it would have negative consequences.

 **Skye:** Like what? Like he’d go crazy?

**Skye:** What is this place?

 **Eric Koenig:** One of Fury’s secret bases. Ah, I call it the Providence. Although, technically, it doesn’t have a name, because, technically, it doesn’t exist, it being a secret base and all. If everyone would follow me… [they do so] pretty cool, huh?

 **Coulson:** I’m sorry. Who are you exactly?

 **Eric Koenig:** Eric Koenig, Agent of SHIELD, Level 6

 **Coulson:** Phil Coulson

 **Eric Koenig:** I know, and it’s an honour to meet you Agent Coulson. And I apologize for the kerfuffle outside. The Precision Remote System was designed to destroy any rapidly moving metallic object.

 **Coulson:** It was my badge

 **Eric Koenig:** It was… Ok, that’s gonna be tough to replace. But very soon you’re gonna be issued you very own lanyard. Lanyards for others will be distributed on a case-by-case basis.

 **Coulson:** What happened to Director Fury? Is he alive?

 **Eric Koenig:** Fury is on his way here now. He wants Skye to tell Agent Ward that he didn’t make it out of DC

 **Skye:** OK, should I tell hm about the base?

 **Eric Koenig:** Yes, Fury wants him to come here. Can I speak to Skye in private.

[In Koenig’s office]

 **Eric Koenig:** Fury wants you to fake being kidnapped by Ward when he comes to have you unlock the hard drive you gave him. Once you are successfully ‘kidnapped’ Fury says that you are allowed to break your cover. He has one final thing, Ward can’t die.

 **Skye:** Ok. I’m guessing I can’t tell anyone. Not even my parents.

 **Eric Koenig:** No.


	19. Season 1 Episode 19 - The Only Light in the Darkness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Coulson races to save the life of his sister

**Coulson:** Is Marcus Daniels on the list?

[Skye shows him the list]

 **Coulson:** That’s him. Cross check the list of inmates with crime databases, recent activity. Got a feeling we’ll be seeing a slight uptake.

 **Skye:** Ok, but that’ll take time and more computing power than my laptop. Agent Koenig probably has some sort of…

 **Coulson:** I’m sure he’ll lend a hand. The plane you flew in on, is it operational?

 **Ward:** Yeah. You need me to pilot?

**Agent Koenig:** Just gonna need you guys to answer a few questions. A few psychoanalytic, non-sequitur questions.

 **Coulson:** A lie detector?

 **Agent Koenig:** The lie detector, Agent Coulson. This baby measures galvanic skin response, oxygen consumption, micro expressions, biofeedback brainwaves, pupil dilation, voile biometrics. Ninety six variables in all. Fury designed this himself. He wanted a lie detector Romanoff couldn’t beat.

 **Ward:** Did she?

 **Agent Koenig:** Like Fury would tell.

 **Coulson:** Ok, sooner we get this done, sooner we can get to work. So, who wants to go first?

**{A/N: This is a cut scene, but I left it as one}**

**Agent Koenig:** We’re gonna start with some easy questions and establish a baseline. Can I have your full name?

 **May:** Melinda Qiaolian May.

 **Agent Koenig:** Eye colour?

 **May:** Brown

 **Agent Koenig:** You ever been married?

 **May:** To Coulson.

 **Agent Koenig:** Have you ever been married?

 **Fitz:** No

 **Agent Koenig:** Please, list your immediate family

 **Fitz:** Just me and my mum

 **Agent Koenig:** So, you’re not gonna mention your grandfather?

 **Triplett:** That’s not something I advertise. Didn’t wanna be treated any differently ‘cause I’m a legacy

 **Agent Koenig:** If I were the grandson of a Howling Commando, I’d have that tattooed on my chest. What is you first name?

 **Skye:** Skye

 **Agent Koenig:** And what is your last name?

 **Skye:** Is this recording?

 **Agent Koenig:** No. What is your last name?

 **Skye:** Coulson-May. I have two nicknames, Agent 10, and The Shadows.

 **Agent Koenig:** When we were kids, my brothers and I used to give each other nicknames, he called me Lightning Foot. What’s the difference between an egg and a rock?

 **May:** Edible. Not.

 **Simmons:** Innumerable. If you want, I can start listing them, but then…

 **Fitz:** We’ll be here all day

 **Agent Koenig:** Have you ever heard about Project Insight?

 **May:** No

 **Skye:** No

 **Triplett:** No

 **Agent Koenig:** Ever had any contact with Alexander Pierce?

 **May:** I’ve met him. We shook hands.

 **Triplett:** Garrett would get a call from him once in a while, said they had mutual friends

 **Skye:** He came to my tenth birthday party.

 **Agent Koenig:** You wash up on a deserted island alone. Sitting on the sand is a box. What is in that box?

 **May:** Machete

 **Triplett:** A sat phone, so I can call someone to get me off that island

 **Fitz:** Simmons

 **Simmons:** The TARDIS

 **Skye:** My laptop, fully charged.

 **Agent Koenig:** SHIELD no longer exists. The Agency has been labelled as a terrorist organisation. So, why are you here?

 **Simmons:** Honestly, I’m not entirely sure

 **Fitz:** We have to stick together. Keep the people we trust close by. No one else really

 **Triplett:** My grandfather fought HYDRA back in the day. The good guys won then. We’ll do it again.

 **May:** Coulson

 **Skye:** My family, literally and metaphorically

 **Agent Koenig:** Congratulations, Agent Skye. Let’s go get you a lanyard.

 **Skye:** Can it stick to my cover, please. I am finally getting somewhere with Ward and if I do that mission, it won’t work if he knows who I really am.

**Coulson:** Daniels was obsessed with a woman there. He called her his only light in the darkness.

 **Simmons:** That’s almost romantic

 **Fitz:** the man’s been locked up in the Fridge for years. He must be over her by now?

 **Coulson:** Some people are hard to get over. Besides, Daniels is pathologically insane. Single-minded. Obsessive. His powers not only robbed him of a normal life, they pretty much fried his bran.

 **Fitz:** What about the woman?

 **Coulson:** Aubrey Nathan. She’s how we tracked him the first time. We find Miss Nathan, we find Daniels.

**Simmons:** We should be safe here

 **Aubrey:** I thought he was locked up

 **Simmons:** He escaped from prison

 **Triplett:** You don’t have to worry. That’s why we’re here. We’re gonna keep you safe.

 **Aubrey:** ‘we’. Meaning the CIA?

 **Simmons:** Of course. That’s what I said, isn’t it? We’re the CIA. The Central Intelligence Agency people.

 **Aubrey:** You’re not. You’re SHIELD, aren’t you?

 **Triplett:** we’re just trying to help. We’re not the bad guys.

 **Audrey:** I know. I don’t believe what they’re saying about SHIELD. The Agency saved my life once before. A few years ago, I saw Daniels at one of my concerts. Front row. Then I started seeing him at all of them. At first, I was flattered. Cellists don’t get groupies. But then one night, I saw him outside of my house. I was terrified. I begged him to leave me alone. He just stood there saying, I was his light. I didn’t understand what he meant, until he started blacking out my entire block. I ran and called the police. They didn’t believe me. But then a SHIELD agent came to my door. I don’t know why, but I trusted him right away. Turns out her was my brother. He swooped in. It was like out of a movie.

 **Simmons:** Yout wo were close?

 **Aubrey:** very. He promised me he would stop Daniels, and that’s exactly what he did/ That’s why I know I can trust SHIELD. Phil never lied to me.

 **Simmons:** Phil?

 **Aubrey:** Agent Phillip Coulson

 **Triplett:** I’ve heard the name

 **Simmons:** What happened to him?

 **Aubrey:** He died in the line of duty. I don’t know the details. We were planning a trip up the coast, and then I got the call.

 **Simmons:** You must miss him

 **Aubrey:** For so long after he died, everything reminded me of him. I still dream about him sometimes. Just us together, laughing. I wake up feeling like he’s watching over me. It’s nice.

[other room]

 **Fitz:** Maybe you should go in there?

 **Coulson:** No, she’s healing. She’s getting on with her life. We should help her do that.

 **Fitz:** Is that why you didn’t allow May or Skye in on the mission.

 **Coulson:** May has a different mission and it’s too emotional for Skye, she’s have to lie to her aunt about her dad.

**May:** What are you doing? We have to go.

 **Mama:** Five hundred miles.

 **May:** What?

 **Mama:** 500 miles and I don’t even get a thank you.

 **May:** I was just about to…

 **Mama:** It’s too late

 **May:** Thank you

 **Mama:** I said, too late. You can call anybody you like. Why me?

 **May:** I needed someone I can trust.

 **Mama:** That had, huh?

 **May:** Did you get it?

 **Mama:** I may be retired, but I still have contacts. And my agency hasn’t fallen apart. You’re not the only one looking, you know? She won’t be hard to find.

 **May:** I know

 **Mama:** You’re not gonna take her out, are you?

 **May:** No, Mum, I just wanna talk

 **Mama:** Good, I’ve always liked Maria.


	20. Season 1 Episode 20 - Nothing Personal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Maria Hill returns to help Coulson

**Maria Hill:** Yeah, it went as expected, SHIELD implodes, and everyone wants answers. The CIA, NSA, NRO, those I can handle. But congress? Congress is like kindergarten. ‘Where is this Fridge? What was in there? Who or what is a Man-Thing?’ I swear, I need a cocktail and a lobotomy. But, apparently, my every move continues to fascinate them. Tonight’s standard-issue surveillance package includes fake yuppie not checking her texts at the bus stop, imposter homeless man, mildly offensive, and the hipster following me looks familiar. I think he’s Russian, or … gone. Pepper, I’ll call you back in 10.

 **May:** We need to talk Agent Hill

 **Maria Hill:** May. A phone call would’ve done it, but I appreciate the discretion.

 **May:** Thought you’d like the night off. They must hate that you’re going to work for Stark.

 **Maria Hill:** Most of the intelligence community would like to drop me in a dark hole. But even they can’t mess with Tony’s army of lawyers. So, for now, we’re privatizing global security. Wanna join?

 **May:** Coulson needs help that our team can’t give him. I think its time.

 **Maria Hill:** I know what you mean.

**Fitz:** Impossible, it can’t be. No. No, I don’t believe it.

 **Triplett:** Take a breath, Agent Fitz

 **Simmons:** He died approximately 10 hours ago of asphyxiation, after May left the premises. A thin wire was used to strangle him. His trachea is crushed, partially sliced through. So, it was done in a hurry. Based on the angle of the lacerations, the killer was at least 6’2”. And strong enough to lift him into… Ward did this.

 **Coulson:** And Skye knows. And she went with him. Holding hands [Coulson makes a disgusted face]. This was what Agent Koenig must have been talking to her about in private. She has to go with it.

[in Coulson’s office]

 **Coulson:** All right. Ward is HYDRA. You know what tat means.

 **Triplett:** Garrett is alive

 **Coulson:** And Agent Hand is dead

 **Triplett:** So, they hit the Fridge

 **Coulson:** And they took out all the weapons they could possibly want. And we didn’t have a clue. So why risk coming back here?

 **Triplett:** it wasn’t to cross us off. What do you have that he wants?

 **Coulson:** I don’t know. He had all our intel on that drive. All he has to do was make a copy… he came back for Skye. She must have encrypted that drive. And she was the only one who could crack back into it.

 **Triplett:** So, they have to keep her alive.

 **Coulson:** And she can stall for time. [computer bleeps] Our plane is in Los Angeles. Finally, some good news.

 **Alert System:** Perimeter defences activated

 **Coulson:** I should have knocked on wood just then

 **Triplett:** Multiple contacts on the ground. They just triggered the gun turrets

 **Coulson:** Come on

**Skye:** You’re staring, again

 **Ward:** I’m not allowed to do that?

 **Skye:** I told you, it’s a complicated hack.

 **Ward:** You’re mistaking my admiration for impatience

 **Skye:** No, it’s impatience

 **Ward:** Ok. Sorry. Didn’t mean to stress you out.

 **Skye:** Maybe you should duck outside. Try again on the sat-phone, just to make sure.

 **Ward:** No. We stick together, we stick to the plan. The sooner you decrypt this hard drive…

 **Skye:** The sooner we get to them. I heard you twice the first time.

 **Ward:** are you alright? You look nervous

 **Skye:** how can you tell, superspy?

 **Ward:** Staying unnaturally still to keep from fidgeting. Maintaining eye contact to give the impression of confidence. What’s wrong

 **Skye:** The last time I was in this booth, I was sitting across from Mike Peterson. A good man. And now he’s a murderer. And we are FBI’s most wanted. It’s just like, any moment could go horribly wrong.

 **Ward:** Relax, you’re doing great

 **Skye:** Hiding what I’m thinking and feeling, it doesn’t come as easy for me as it does for you

 **Ward:** Comes with experience

 **Skye:** Yeah, I guess it does

 **Waiter:** What can I get you guys?

 **Officer:** Some coffee.

**Simmons:** I wish this bunker had a bunker

 **Coulson:** These doors should hold. It’ll take some major artillery to make a dent.

 **Security Alarm:** Hangar door deactivated

 **Simmons:** How? That’s impossible

 **Coulson:** Take cover. Let’s go. [Coulson takes a look] It’s not HYDRA. It’s the Avengers.

 **Avengers:** Coulson!

 **Coulson:** Hey guys1 Did Fury sent you? [Maria walks in]

 **Maria Hill:** I told them. You wife spoke to me.

**Maria Hill:** We should’ve seen HYDRA coming. But after DC, they don’t stand a chance.

 **Coulson:** John Garrett does.

 **Clint Barton:** Agent Garrett, the one who thinks he is all cool?

 **Coulson:** The very same. What's worse, Ward’s his secret weapon. He killed Victoria Hand, then raided the Fridge, and now he’s got Skye. Which is where we were headed

 **Maria Hill:** I know about that mission. Fury wants her to get ‘kidnapped’ by Ward and then help take them down from the inside, just like HYDRA did to us.

 **Natasha Romanov:** Karma.

 **Coulson:** It's a mission?!

 **Maria Hill:** Fury thought it would be best if you and May didn't know.

**Ward:** How much longer?

 **Skye:** Half hour?

 **Ward:** You said that a half hour ago.

 **Skye:** Weren’t you the one who told me to relax

 **Ward:** those cops over there keep looking at us

 **Skye;** they’re just checking out the waitress. They don’t know you’re pretending to be someone you’re not

 **Ward:** Yeah? All right. Who am I pretending to be?

 **Skye:** My impatient boyfriend

 **Ward:** I like that cover

 **Skye:** What it the longest you’ve been undercover? Like, deep undercover?

 **Ward:** Uh… sixteen months.

 **Skye:** when was that?

 **Ward:** Hmmm, about five years outside of the Academy. I posed as a Russian attaché at the embassy in Warsaw.

 **Skye:** It’s got to be so hard, living a double life like that. Getting close to people only to turn on them. I don’t know how Garrett did it.

 **Ward:** Garrett?

 **Skye:** Think about the time he spent as you SO, getting to know you, being your mentor, only to lie to your face, betray you like that.

 **Ward:** it was difficult to accept. But, thankfully, that’s over.

 **Skye:** Because you took care of him.

 **Ward:** Can you not discuss this right now?

 **Skye:** If you had one more moment, before you shot him in the back of the head so heroically, if he were sitting right here, and you could say anything you want, what would you say?

 **Ward:** Skye!

 **Skye:** Would you say he’s disgusting? Would you tell him he’s a disgusting, backstabbing traitor? Or to rot in hell?

 **Ward:** What are you doing?

 **Skye:** I’m just trying to have an honest conversation for once.

 **Officer 1:** [to others in the café] excuse me, folks. Could I ask you to step outside for a minute?

 **Ward:** They’re starting to clear people out. We should go.

 **Skye:** No. I think I’m good here.

 **Ward:** Skye, we’ve been made. Come on.

 **Skye:** No. [showing screen] I tipped them off. Hail HYDRA

 **Officer 1:** You two! Show me your hands, now!

 **Officer 2:** Get ‘em up! Out of the booth, nice and slow.

 **Officer 1:** All right, turn around. Hands on your head.

 **Skye:** Just be careful. He’s armed. [she runs out] officers! I surrender, arrest me.

 **Officer 1:** Slow down, ma’am. What are you talking about?

 **Skye:** I’m and agent of SHIELD, a wanted fugitive. Take me in.

[the officers arrest Skye but Deathlok takes her onto the plane.]

[on the plane]

 **Skye:** I would be careful. I’m not just a lowly hacker that’s a high school dropout.

 **Ward:** Ok then. Who are you?

 **Skye:** I’m Agent 10.

 **Ward:** How can we know you’re telling the truth?

 **Mike:** She is.

 **Ward:** And how’d you know?

 **Mike:** The files that Romanoff leaked to the world included info on every SHIELD agent in the world, including Agent 10.

 **Ward:** So, Agent 10, who else knows about your identity? [Ward is cut off by Maria Hill]

 **Maria Hill:** Maria Hill to SHIELD 616. You have 30 seconds to stand down and surrender. I repeat, stand down and surrender. [Skye smirks] You gonna answer me, Ward, or do I have to come over there?

 **Ward:** Maria Hill. I kind of hoped you went down with the Triskelion.

 **Maria Hill:** And I hoped you weren’t the duplicitous lowlife you turned out to be, but here we are.

 **Ward:** Gonna be honest with you, Hill, I’m having a pretty bad day. So, if I were you, I would get out of my way.

 **Hill:** Mmm, give up Agent 10, and we’ll talk about it.

 **Ward:** Yeah, that’s not happening

 **Hill:** you know, I never liked you, Ward. Not since our first sit-down. I didn’t trust you, why do you think I sent Agent 10 in undercover. Now hand Skye over, or I’ll have a squad of F-16s know you off your butt.

 **Ward:** Even if you had that much pull anymore, which you don’, Coulson would never let you do it. He would never sacrifice Skye like that. Even if he doesn’t know her cover.

 **Hill:** Of course, he knows her cover, her name’s Agent Skye Coulson-May Level 9 Agent of SHIELD [Ward’s plane takes off]

 **Triplett:** You want me to pursue?

 **Hill:** No. Their tracking systems are up and running. I just hop we brought enough time.

[Coulson climbs on plane]

 **Coulson:** are you ok? Did Ward hurt you?

 **Skye:** No, I’m ok. But, the encrypted hard drive, I unlocked it for them.

 **Coulson:** forget that. We need to move. We’re gonna take the cockpit.

 **Skye:** wait. You came alone?

 **Coulson:** It’s ok. We can take Ward.

 **Skye:** I know, but how did you get past Deathlok

 **Coulson:** Deathlok’s here on the plane?

 **Skye:** Yeah, you didn’t take him out?

 **Coulson:** New plan. Run!

 **Skye:** Wait. Dad. What about you?

 **Coulson:** Get to the cargo hold. Now!

 **Deathlok:** I can’t let you leave, Agent Coulson

 **Coulson:** It’s still my plane. I don’t need your permission.

**Coulson:** I was hoping you’d come back. Ward is…

 **May:** I know. Hill told me. There is something you need to see [opens laptop] you wanted to know who was behind TAHITI? This is what I found out.

 **Video Coulson:** Good morning, Director Fury I regret to inform you that I am handing in my resignation. I know you bought me on Project TAHITI because you trusted my judgement, and it's that judgement that's telling me I can no longer, in good conscious, let the testing continue, I understand he started the programme to potentially save a mortal wounded Avenger. But the side effects of too extreme. We had initial success with the regenerative properties of the guest host tissue, but after the initial physical recovery, the subjects began to deteriorate mentally, displaying hypergraphia, aphasia, catatonia, or just complete psychosis. We don't know if it was the biology at play, or simply the awareness of what was done. But the only course of action that search showed any promise of stemming these side effects was memory replacement, erasing completely the awareness of what they had been through. And even those results were very inconsistent. To be clear, I read commanding the termination of Project TAHITI. Under no circumstances should these procedures or drugs be administered to anyone, ever. The cost is far too great. Thank you, Sir.


	21. Season 1 Episode 21 - Ragtag

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ward's betrayal and HYDRA's shocking secret are revealed

**New reporter:** eyewitnesses claims the assailant smashed through several walls before killing Colombia’s most notorious drug lord, Alejandro Castillo, AKA El Dogo. Speculation continues as to whether this superhuman assassination was carried out by a man, monster, or machine.

 **Fitz:** The correct answer is ‘D’, all of the above. [turns around] what the hell is Deathlok doing in Bogota?

 **Simmons:** And why would he kill a drug lord with known ties to HYDRA?

 **Skye:** Well, it would make it look like Deathlok isn’t a part of HYDRA. Also, if they are in Colombia, then Garrett and our hijacked plane might not be in American airspace. I have to expand our search.

 **Coulson:** Guys, you might wanna come in here for a minute. [they all go in the other room] This is just about everything we’ve been dealing with. And this… connects them all. Cybertek built Deathlok, shipped items to Quinn, who was working for the Clairvoyant, who turns out to be Garrett, who planted Ward on our bus, because he wanted to know why I didn’t stay dead. Although, we were preparing for that, which is why Skye and Trip went undercover with them. Should’ve drawn another chart for this part.

 **Fitz:** No, I get it. Garrett’s been developing Centipede serum all this time.

 **Coulson:** Yes

 **Simmons:** And he wants GH-325 as its final ingredient. A way to stabilise and regenerate his Centipede soldiers.

 **May:** And its why Ward came back for the hard drive. It had all of your research about Coulson and Skye. It’s all on there.

 **Coulson:** But that’s not the only thing on there. Skye left them a little surprise.

 **Skye:** A Trojan horse. It’s been slowly mapping every system they’ve uploaded it to.

 **Fitz:** You can wake it up, and control their systems

 **Skye:** Except, it doesn’t work that way because I didn’t have enough time to build it, so we need to plug this into one of their computers to activate it. Spoiler alert, we can’t seem to find one.

 **May:** I think we have. Garrett and Cybertek have been working together for years. If it’s on Garrett’s system…

 **Skye:** It’s on Cybertek’s

 **May:** Which is why we’re gonna go into one of their offices.

 **Coulson:** We have no authority to do this. We’re no longer SHIELD agents, we’re…

 **Fitz:** we’re vigilantes

 **Coulson:** I was gonna say, ‘doing this because it’s the right thing t do’, but yeah. So, if you’re with me, I’m gonna finish what I started. I’ll be damned if I’m gonna let Garret and Ward get away with murder. And I want my plane back.

**Coulson:** We’re on with the R&D department up at Cybertek’s Polo Alto offices.

 **Skye:** It’ll be ok, Fitz. NO matter how deep they dig, they’ll only find the new identities I’ve created

 **Fitz:** It’s not that. It’s the idea of giving them access to all of our designs

 **Coulson:** We’re not actually giving them anything. We just need to get one of their computers. You don’t have to go.

 **Fitz:** It’s not that, either. It’s Ward. What if Garrett put an exploding eye into him to control him? Maybe that’s why he betrayed us.

 **Skye:** I’m pretty sure there’s a much simpler reason. He’s evil.

 **Fitz:** I don’t believe that people are born evil. Something must’ve happened.

 **Trip:** Hey. Sorry it took so long. You know Mom, she’s real sentimental about Grandad’s Howling Commando stuff.

**Coulson:** Now, Trip was generous enough to offer up some of his grandad’s spy tech to help us out. We should systematically take a full inventory of… oh, my God is that a handheld hypno-beam?

 **Trip:** One of the original betas. See how it has the switch on the bottom?

 **Coulson:** The production models moved it to the side. This is amazing. Almost as cool as a…

 **Trip and Coulson:** Transitionised blast gun

 **Skye:** Ok, the two of you can geek out later, but we have a plane to catch. Anyway, where did they buy this stuff? From the back of a comic book?

 **Trip:** Come on, girl, that’s not a real hoy buzzer. That’s a… [goes off] EMP. Knocks power out in about a 10 foot radius.

 **Fitz:** [Wearing funny glasses]. Yeah. A lot of vintage SHIELD spy craft was designed to look innocent in case the spy was caught. Like, oh… like these smokes. Oh… [imitates smoker]

 **Coulson:** Thanks, Trip. This is a huge help. Gives us a fighting chance against these bad guys. [smoke alarm goes off]

 **Simmons:** Oh, Fitz

 **May:** Watch out HYDRA, here we come.

**Ott:** HI, welcome to Cybertek. Sit, please. I’m Ott, senior VP of R&D. This is Diaz.

 **Coulson:** I’m Theo Tittle, this is Dr Roum [May waves] Thanks so much for seeing us on suc short notice.

 **Ott:** We’ve met with a number of other former SHIELD scientists recently, and, I must say, thus far we’re underwhelmed. HYDRA, on the other hand, less constrained in their thinking. And younger

 **Diaz:** Usually younger

 **Ott:** Yeah

 **[off screen] Fitz:** I told you we should’ve gone in

 **Simmons:** Oh, hush. May looks barely a day over… thirty. You’re gorgeous

 **Skye:** Score one for the Howling Commandos. You grandpa’s pin should help me locate Cybertek’s mainframe.

 **Trip:** I didn’t know they had Wi Fi back in the day.

 **Skye:** They didn’t. that’s the beauty of the pin. It uses UHF to search for data. Nobody’s even scanning those frequencies for potential leaks. [beep] that’s weird. I’m not finding any digital data about anything. Let alone a source for it. How’s that possible.

 **Trip:** Maybe it’s protected. Or insulated somewhere inside.

 **Skye:** Guys, just keep them busy a minute longer.

 **Fitz:** Ok, now show them the ICER bullet. I designed this to be powerful…

 **Coulson:** I designed this to be powerful, non-lethal, and to break-break up under subcutaneous tissue

 **Simmons:** And my challenge was that it could only hold a dose of…

 **May:** 85 micrograms of dendrotoxin. He should’ve run the specs by me before building the moulds

 **Simmons:** But I think we can both agree that…

 **May:** The true beauty is my hyper-concentrated…

 **Simmons:** Dendrotoxin…

 **Fitz:** My cartridge casing…

 **May:** dendrotoxin formula

 **Coulson:** projection system. Obviously

 **May:** … with compresses air expulsion.

 **Ott:** We’ve seen one of these bullets before. What did hey use it with?

 **Diaz:** The sleepy-sleep gun, I think

 **Ott:** That’s right. Our team took this rudimentary concept and converted it into an aerosol grenade. Much more useful.

 **Fitz:** But this is an ICER

 **Coulson:** Yes, but this is an ICER. Triple the stopping power and a much cooler name

 **Ott:** What else do you have?

**Skye:** Here we go. Building permits Cybertek’s filed in the city. There’s something funky about the fourth floor. Only one way in or out. Extra reinforced security door.

 **Trip:** That’s gotta be it, right?

 **Skye:** Mum, Dad, can you get up to the fourth floor?

 **Coulson:** It’s a shame it didn’t work out.

 **Ott:** It is

 **May:** So lovely to meet you both [go in elevator] does your sweater itch?

 **Coulson:** a little bit

 **May:** Yeah

[May fights the employee]

 **Coulson:** I don’t know if I’ve said it enough, but I’m glad you’re back

 **May:** Try not to set the drapes on fire

 **Skye:** Stop, there’s a kid on comms. [May and Coulson smirk]

[in file room]

 **Coulson:** Skye, I think I know why you couldn’t find the mainframe. There isn’t one.

 **Skye:** What do you mean, there isn’t one?

 **Coulson:** All the files are hard copies

 **May:** That’s why Granny was typing during our meeting. We’re here. Might as well look around.

[walking through files]

 **May:** Hey, Phil. Mike Peterson’s file

 **Coulson:** How can this all be Project Deathlok? 1990? How far back can this thing go? Garrett was the first Deathlok. Let’s go. Skye, Trip, get ready for a large file transfer.

 **Skye:** How large?

[file box flies out of window and FitzSimmons carry it to the van]

 **Trip:** Back it up [shoots zip wire up to Coulson and May and they slide down it]

**Garrett:** Garrett started Project Deathlok way back in 1990. Look at this. He was Patient Zero.

 **Skye:** We’ve been looking at this backwards. Garrett doesn’t just want GH-325 for his Centipede soldiers, je wants it for himself. So that he can become a real life boy again. An if he happens to create an army of programmed super-soldiers for HYDRA along the way, triple bonus points.

 **Fitz:** How do we know Garrett didn’t do that to Ward, too? Maybe he’s being programmed.

 **Simmons:** Fitz, when are you gonna stop clinging to the idea that Ward’s the victim and not the perpetrator?

 **Fitz:** When I see something with my own two eyes. We don’t know all the facts

 **Skye:** You want a fact, Fitz? Ward murders people. I should’ve let Mike finish him when I had the chance. I’m stupid and weak.

 **Coulson** You’re not weak. You have compassion. That’s harder. We’ll find him

 **Pizza Guy:** Pizza delivery for Pablo Jimenez!

 **Coulson:** That’s me!

**May:** You never came out to eat.

 **Skye:** Not much of an appetite

 **May:** Look. Fitz can’t process the truth about Ward. Not yet. What he said, it’s what he needs to believe. You knew and believed that Ward was anti-SHIELD, Fitz knew but didn’t believe.

 **Skye:** Do you think that Ward’s being controlled?

 **May:** Absolutely not, and I know that you don’t. you were trained from an age of eight to spot when someone isn’t thinking for themselves and are being controlled.

 **Skye:** You know, I never gave you enough credit for this whole Zen warrior thing. But I got to admit it’d be nice not feel anything right now.

 **May:** You think I don’t feel anything?

 **Skye:** Look at you. You’re a statue [May smirks]

 **May:** I’m furious. But I’m sure as hell not ganna waste it on a tantrum. I’m gonna mine it. Save it. And when we find Ward, I’m gonna use every bit of it to take him down.

 **Skye:** Wish I knew how to use that hate-fu

 **May:** You’re fifteen, you can’t control your emotions at that age, you have mood swings

 **Skye:** Mom! [disgusted face]

 **May:** I’m up most mornings at 5:00

 **Coulson:** [comes in] Trip ID’d a number of Cybertek shipments that ping ponged across the globe. Brazil, Cambodia, Syria, but they all ended up in Havana.

 **Skye:** SHIELD used to have a base there.

 **Coulson:** Told you we’d find him. We’re going to Cuba.


	22. Season 1 Episode 22 - Beginning of the End

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Coulson and his team go to war against Garrett and HYDRA

**Skye:** The Trojan horse worked. Gave us access to the system we wanted. Our secret weapon. We now have eyes on their operations, right in the palm of my hand

**Trip:** We’ll need more that eyes to defeat Garrett

**May:** What is it?

**Coulson:** FitzSimmons’ tracker crossed the ocean. It’s in New Mexico

**Skye:** They managed to tag the plane?

**Coulson:** It appears do. But they’re not responding.

**Skye:** No

**Coulson:** We can’t think about that right now. They may have been captured. Either way, they risked everything to put a tracker on that plane for us. Now we know exactly where Garrett is, and Skye can see what he’s doing. If Fitz and Simmons are still alive, then catching Garrett is our only shot at finding them.

[bottom of the ocean]

**Fitz:** You look peaceful sleeping. Didn’t want to wake you, but I’m glad that you’re up.

**Simmons:** What’s happening?

**Fitz:** I’ve spent the last hour trying to figure out why we sank. We’re at the bottom of the ocean in case you missed that bit. These pods are built to be compatible with all SHIELD aircraft, submarine, and spacecraft. On impact, the atmospheric adaptation must’ve tried to compensate. We slowly sank as it increased the density of the outer walls. I measured the rate the water rose on the glass. Did the math. We’re at least 90 feet down. You can’t see the surface.

**Simmons:** How did we survive the fall?

**Fitz:** Plane must’ve been in vertical flight mode, flying low. I managed to strap us to one of the backboards before we hit. And I broke my arm. Same two places I broke it in second grade. Which is strange.

**Simmons:** I thought we were dead for sure, Fitz. Now we just need to figure ourselves a way out of here. Right?

**Fitz:** Then we’d be in the middle of the ocean with the bends, no floatation, and no one looking for us. I’ve already spnt an hour trying to rig the wireless signals on the EKG to send out a weak distress call before remembering that it’s a SHIELD frequency and no one’s listening. And that’s not the problem. The problem is that there aren’t many supplies left in here, so, I’ve already done the math.

**Simmons:** Enough with the math! What are you saying? [exchange looks] There is no way out. We’re going to die down here.

**Coulson:** We only get one shot at this, so let’s go over the plan one more time to make sure we’re clear on exactly what we’re doing, ok? Trip and I will crest the ridge, use a noise maker to grab the three-wheel, maybe something with more fireworks, and open a window for you two. You crawl in, grab the dealer, force his hand, he’ll get us our ace in the hole, and the Bob’s your uncle.

**Skye:** Roger that.

**Trip:** Makes it sound easy

**May:** Coulson, it’s a solid plan you’ve mapped out, but it hinges on a gamble. A big one.

**Coulson:** And back up isn’t coming. It’ll be just the four of us. We’ll be outmanned and outgunned. But Fury always said a man con accomplish anything

**Skye:** When she realises, she’s a part of something bigger.

**Trip:** A team of people who share that conviction can change the world.

**Coulson:** So, what do you say? You ready to change the world?

**May:** No. But I’m ready to kick some butt

**Coulson:** That works, too

**Coulson:** All right. What do we want? There’s a three wheel over there

**Trip;** Here comes a Humvee that has better fireworks.

**Coulson:** Hold on

**Trip:** Now that’s what I’m talking about

**Coulson:** You bring a noise maker?

**Trip:** Sir, I bring the noise and the funk wherever I go

**Coulson:** I know, you have since you were little

**Noisemaker:** Hey-ho friends! The enemy approaches! Careful now, or they’ll win the day!

[Trip and Coulson hijack a Humvee]

**Coulson:** You know where to put the next one

[wall explodes]

**May:** Nice work, guys. The window’s open.

**Skye:** This is a bomb. You know what those do. And you’ve seen Agent May here through the eyes of your super-soldiers. So, you know what she does. You don’t wanna mess with us, is my point.

**Cybertek Guy:** You’re not gonna be able to hijack our soldiers. We’ve thought through every emergency scenario. Including this one .

**May:** Don’t tell me you just switched the soldiers to default directive?

**Cybertek Guy:** Yeah. I did. And how did you know about that?

[on the phone]

**Garret:** Yeah?

**Skye:** Hi, John. Just calling to catch up

**Garrett:** Skye. You sound different on the phon. Huskier.

**Skye:** You curious as to why I’m calling from your super soldier control centre?

**Garrett:** No, I’m not too concerned. You see, if anyone but the assigned handler gives a directive to one of my men, well … kaboom.

**Skye:** Ah, darn it. Dad didn’t think of that. You outsmarted us again.

**Garrett:** Phil’s around? Great. We actually have a lot to talk about. Oh, and I wanted you to know, your scientist friends? They were brave until their last breath.

[Fury Saves FitzSimmons in a helicopter] **{A/N: I know I didn’t do this scene justice, but I wanted to at least mention the scene}**

[Simmons wakes up]

**Fury:** You’re in decompression. On a jet back to the mainland.

**Simmons:** They told us you were dead. Until we reached Providence base.

**Fury;** Good. We want word to get around on that

**Simmons:** Fitz

**Fury:** Easy. Easy. His heart’s still beating. Just barely. I have a full med team on him. But you have to remain in this chamber, ok? His brain was without oxygen for a long time. But you saved him.

**Simmons:** It was the other way around. How did you find us?

**Fury:** That makeshift beacon of yours. Good thinking. Led us right to you. Lucky we were looking.

**Simmons:** you were looking/

**Fury:** For my man, Coulson. I understand you were involved with a dispute I might wanna weigh in on. You have anything that might lead me to him?

**Skye:** looks like the back entrance to the factory floor is on the south side

**Coulson:** [radio] roger that

**Skye:** I have to hit snooze on this every minute to keep that from blowing

**Cybertek Guy:** I will die before talking. But there’s nothing to tell. There’s no way of controlling the soldiers unless there’s an actual handler at the machine.

**Skye:** I’m not interested in that. I’m more interested in why you’re wiling to die for HYDRA. Are you a true believer. Is HYDRA the plucky little family you never had? Or are you here because of the Incentives Program?

**Ward:** She’s not gonna kill you. She had a chance to kill me before and couldn’t do it. And se hates me. A lot.

**Skye:** I feel sorry for you

**Ward:** Because little old Agent 10 hates me [mockingly]

**Skye:** No. Betraying the only people who gave you a chance at being a decent human being. Fitz was a hero because he still wanted to give you a chance, after everything. But some people are just born evil, I guess.

**Ward:** Yeah. Yeah, maybe they are. I’ve learned things about you, Skye. History. Things you’ll wanna know. You and I aren’t that different.

**Skye:** You’re not the evil I was referring to. Garrett is evil, you’re just weak. Doing anything you’re told. I hope Garrett orders you to walk into traffic.

**Ward:** You’re right, Skye. You woke up a weakness inside me. For the first time in a while, I wanted something for myself. Maybe I’ll just take what I want. Wake up something inside of you.

**Skye:** I’m not afraid of you, Ward

**Ward:** You’re not gonna kill us with a bomb. You’d go, too.

**Skye:** No. I have a weapon much better than a bomb that will absolutely destroy you.

**Ward:** Why’s that?

**Skye:** Because you slept with her and she’s really pissed off. She is a really overprotective mother. [May starts attacking Ward]

**Coulson:** Hi, John. [punches Garrett]

**Garrett:** Hi, Phil [fling Coulson across the room]

**Coulson:** Well, that’s new [Fury is standing over Coulson] Sir?

**Fury:** You don’t have to call me ‘sir’, Coulson. Look at me. I’m dressed like I live under a bridge

**Coulson:** what are you doing here?

**Fury:** Simmons turned me on to that old-timey tracker Fitz left on your bus. [gunshots] I went to great pains to make sure you didn’t die the first time

**Coulson:** well, now’s probably not the best time, but I’d like to have a lengthy conversation with you about that. It might get loud

**Fury:** And I owe you that, but right now, we owe Garrett a punch in the teeth. Wouldn’t you say? This packs a pretty good punch

**Coulson:** I know what that does.

[Coulson shoots super-soldiers. Fury shoots Garrett multiple times but it does nothing]

**Garrett:** Fury. Well, hell. When was the last time anyone was a tag-team wrestling match with four dead guys?

**Coulson:** I only see one dead guy in here

**Garrett:** Oh, the power is all on this side of the room. Of course, I don’t blame you, Nick. You haven’t seen the big picture, the big bang. The timeless frozen ocean. But Phil here has. We share a bond. We’re blood brothers.

**Fury:** You didn’t tell me he went this crazy

**Coulson:** He’s really stepped it up a notch

**Garrett:** You remember that speech you used to give us, Nick? About how one can accomplish anything once he realises, he can be something bigger? Well, now I am.

**Fury:** A part. A part of something bigger.

**Garrett:** Is that how it went?

**Coulson:** Not a great listener

**Fury:** If you tell me this whole HYDRA path thing you took is because you misheard my damn one-man speech…

**Garrett:** I am the key to the future of the universe. I’m the origin of all things…

**Fury:** You got it, right?

**Coulson:** Totally. Loud and clear. [Garrett orders Deathlok to fire at Coulson] Fury was teaching us something you didn’t want to hear, John. Because you only think about yourself. That’s the difference between your side and our side. And why we’re always gonna win.

**Garrett:** What lesson, Phil? Please, enlighten me. [Deathlok shoots Garrett] You can’t do this Mike. I order you to stand down. You must obey me. You need me to translate the words of creation. You don’t wanna do this, Mike. Tell him, Phil!

**Coulson:** Mr Peterson’s free to do whatever he wants.

[Mike kills Garrett]

**Fury:** Think he learned his lesson?

**Coulson:** He learned something.

**Coulson:** without regular injections, they’re just men. Once doctors remove their cybernetic eyes, they’ll be essentially back to normal.

**Trip:** Minus and eye, of course

**Coulson:** You got a chance to express all your feelings?

**May:** Is he breathing?

**Coulson:** I guess she kept some of it to herself.

**May:** He’s having trouble speaking. I think I fractured his larynx

**Coulson:** oh, good. Your attempt to cross off Fitz and Simmons failed. But Fitz may never be the same again. So, I’m gonna invent new ways to ruin the rest of your life. And we’ll do whatever’s necessary to get HYDRA intel from you, but your torture? That’s gonna be internal.

**May:** and a little bit external

**Coulson:** Sure, some of that. But you devoted your entire life too a deranged narcissist who never gave a damn about anyone, and now he’s dead. And you’ve got the rest of your life to wrestle the question ‘who are you without him?’

**Coulson:** Stupid! Stupis! Stupid! And cruel. And very stupid.

**Fury:** I think you made your point.

**Coulson:** Why bring me back in the first place? Clearly, I didn’t think it was the best idea. I warned you about people losing their minds

**Fury:** Agent May was on top of the situation. She says you’re fine. Aren’t you? It was a ‘break glass in case of emergancy’ situation

**Coulson:** yes, but that emergency was supposed to be the fall of an Avenger

**Fury:** Exactly. And I’m damn glad I did it, too. When you wanna build something, you need a strong foundation. Now, you know how few people I trust, Coulson.

**Coulson:** You can count them on one hand

**Fury:** and I’m not afraid to cut off fingers. The principle SHIELD was founded was simple

**May:** Protection

**Fury:** ‘Protection’ one word. Sometimes to protect one man against himself. Other times to protect the planet against an alien invasion from another universe. It’s a broad job description.

**Coulson:** No need to tell me

**Fury:** But the belief that drives us all is the same, whether it’s one man or all mankind

**Coulson:** that they are worth saving

**Fury:** that truth lives inside you, Coulson. Before it was torn apart, SHIELD was a lot of moving parts. But guys like you were the heart. Now… you’ll be the head.

**Coulson:** What is it?

**Fury:** a toolbox. To help you build it back up

**Coulson:** You want me to start over? Rebuild SHIELD?

**Fury:** From scratch. Take your time. And do it right. You’ll still have his back?

**May:** Of course

**Fury:** There’s no one else I trust with this, besides Skye but she’s too young

**Coulson:** Thank you, sir. How do you… How should I proceed?

**Fury:** That’s up to you, Director

**May:** And you, sir? Where are you heading now?

**Fury:** Saying bye to Skye and then trading in my bird’s-eye view for two solid feet on the ground. This is the last time you’ll be seeing me for a stretch

**Coulson:** You’re gonna disappear. Nowhere to be found.

**Fury:** Nowhere? You know me better that that, Phil. I’ll be everywhere.

**Skye:** Fitz? Is he ok? Please tell me he’s ok.

**Simmons:** He’s alive

**May:** What is this place?

**Coulson:** First thing I found in that box was these coordinates. Another secret base?

**Billy Koenig:** I call it the Playground. Although, technically, it doesn’t have a name, because, technically, it doesn’t exist. It being a secret base and all

**Skye:** Eric?

**Billy:** Billy Koenig, Agent of SHIELD. Although I totally understand the confusion. Eric died, sadly. But it’s great to have company, finally. And I did not mind minding this place.

**Coulson:** Agent Coulson.

**Billy:** I know. I know. And it’s an honour to meet you, sir. I’ll get you your lanyards shortly.


End file.
